Today’s Kindle Daily Deal is James Wilton’s bestseller, Random Harvest. Wilton is the celebrated author of the beloved books, Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. With a regular digital list price of $14.99, this novel has an average review rating of 4.5/5 stars and is priced at $1.99 for today only. From Amazon:
A veteran’s comfortable life is upended when long-buried memories of his time in the trenches of World War I come rushing back
Charles Rainier’s family feared him lost along with so many of Britain’s youth during the First World War. But two years after he was reported MIA, he appears in a Liverpool hospital with no memory of his missing years. Even after marriage and a life of relative success, he can’t recall his time on the battlefield—until the first bombs of the Second World War begin to fall. Suddenly, his memories flood back. Recollections of a violent battlefield, a German prison, and a passionate affair all threaten to fracture the peaceful life he has worked so hard to create.
Random Harvest is a moving account of the trauma of war and the courage required to find redemption in the face of the most overwhelming circumstances.
Amazon reviewer C. Hutton says:
This completes the trilogy of classic James Hilton novels (the other two being “Lost Horizon” and “Goodbye Mr. Chips”) which were all made into movies during Hollywood’s Golden Era. It is the lesser known of the three novels, although Random Harvest is his most complete work.
The story is a romance, a mystery, a critque on England’s class structure, and a parable. Hilton uses the lost years of Charles Rainier as a methaphor for the lost years of the 1920/1930’s when England failed to prepare for the next war. Told in flashbacks and bookended by World War I and World War II, the resolution is only revealed in its final sentence that will shock you and change everything that you have just read & thought you understood. You will go back and re-read the book as your perception of all the characters are altered by the surprise ending.
Two cautions: First, see the 1942 Ronald Coleman/ Greer Garson movie AFTER reading the book to see how the ending is handled. Second, the opening few pages are set in an England and of a time that will be unfamiliar to most Americans, but if one continues on, the reader will be deeply rewarded. The ability to be surprised is a rare gift and Hilton delivers.
Random Harvest – $1.99 in Kindle edition, today only.