In the Wolf's Mouth — Adam Foulds

Set in North Africa and Sicily at the end of World War II, "In the Wolf's Mouth" follows the Allies' botched "liberation" attempts as they chased the Nazis north toward the Italian mainland. Focusing on the experiences of two young soldiers--Will Walker, an English field security officer, ambitious to master and shape events; and Ray Marfione, a wide-eyed Italian American infantryman--the novel contains some of the best battle writing of the past fifty years. Eloquent on the brutish, blundering inaccuracy of war, the immediacy of Adam Foulds's prose is uncanny and unforgettable.

The book also explores the continuity of organized crime in Sicily through the eyes of two men--Angilu, a young shepherd; and Ciro Albanese, a local Mafioso. These men appear in the prologue and in the book's terrifying final chapters, making it evident that the Mafia were there before and are there still, the slaughter of war only a temporary distraction.

"In the Wolf's Mouth" has achieved an extraordinary resurrection, returning humanity to the lives lost in the writing of history.