Books with title How Many Miles to Babylon

Whitbread Literary Award-winning novelist Jennifer Johnston's story of two young Irish men, whose defiant friendship spans class and, later, rank at the onset of World War I. Born to an aristocratic family on an estate outside of Dublin, Alexander Moore feels the constraints of his position most acutely in his friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Catholic laborer in town. Jerry is one of the few bright spots in Alec's otherwise troubled life. The boys bond over their love of swimming and horses, despite the admonitions of Alec's cold and overbearing mother, who scolds her son for venturing outside of his class. When the Great War begins, he seizes the opportunity to escape his overbearing mother and taciturn father, and enlists in the British army. Jerry, too, enlists - not out of loyalty to Britain, but to prepare himself for the Republican cause. Stationed in Flanders, the young men are reunited and find that, while encamped in the trenches, their commonalities are what help them survive. Now a lieutenant and an officer, Alec and Jerry again find their friendship under assault, this time from the rigid Major Glendinning, whose unyielding adherence to rank leads the two men toward a harrowing impasse that will change their lives forever.

Alec and Jerry shouldn't have been friends: Alec's life was one of privilege, while Jerry's was one of toil. But this hardly mattered to two young men whose shared love of horses brought them together and whose whole lives lay ahead of them. When war breaks out in 1914, both Jerry and Alec sign up - yet for quite different reasons. On the fields of Flanders they find themselves standing together, but once again divided: as officer and enlisted man. And it is there, surrounded by mud and chaos and death, that one of them makes a fateful decision whose consequences will test their friendship and loyalty to breaking point.

From a Whitbread Award–winning author: A WWI novel of loyalty and friendship “graced with the immanent lyrical talent of the Irish writers at their best” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Born to an aristocratic family on an estate outside of Dublin, Alexander Moore feels the constraints of his position most acutely in his friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Catholic laborer in town. Jerry is one of the few bright spots in Alec’s otherwise troubled life. The boys bond over their love of swimming and horses, despite the admonitions of Alec’s cold and overbearing mother, who scolds her son for venturing outside of his class. When the Great War begins, he seizes the opportunity to escape his overbearing mother and taciturn father, and enlists in the British army. Jerry, too, enlists—not out of loyalty to Britain, but to prepare himself for the Republican cause. Stationed in Flanders, the young men are reunited and find that, while encamped in the trenches, their commonalities are what help them survive. Now a lieutenant and an officer, Alec and Jerry again find their friendship under assault, this time from the rigid Major Glendinning, whose unyielding adherence to rank leads the two men toward a harrowing impasse that will change their lives forever.

Innocently involved in a family tragedy, young Billy Monroe leaves home on foot, naively seeking solace in visions of the city of Babylon. Tales about the mythical ancient city were favorites of his now dead mother. And the police are seeking Billy—he’s their principal suspect.Instead of finding Babylon, Billy ends his flight from Kansas City in western Kansas. He stops at the Jesus Saves Boarding House, a home where the county has placed several of its mentally ill charges. It may not be Babylon, but Billy finds relief with the home-spun, off-beat wisdom of Purdy Pratt, proprietor of the boarding house.

Innocently involved in a family tragedy, young Billy Monroe leaves home on foot, naively seeking solace in visions of the city of Babylon. Tales about the mythical ancient city were favorites of his now dead mother. And the police are seeking Billy—he’s their principal suspect.Instead of finding Babylon, Billy ends his flight from Kansas City in western Kansas. He stops at the Jesus Saves Boarding House, a home where the county has placed several of its mentally ill charges. It may not be Babylon, but Billy finds relief with the home-spun, off-beat wisdom of Purdy Pratt, proprietor of the boarding house.

Ten-year-old James leaves school one day and goes down to the basement of an abandoned house, as he has done many times before. It is here that he enacts the fantasy that his mother has woven for him: he is an African prince in hiding, guarded by his three great-aunts while his mother is in Africa fixing everything, telling people about him and the other African princes so that they can come together in their robes and feathers and lead the lives of princes again. In reality, James lives in a one-room apartment with his father's three aunts. His mother is sick and has been in the hospital for a while; his father, who walked out on them, has been gone even longer.But on this trip to the abandoned house, James has bad luck: he is discovered there by Gino, Stick, and Blue, tough boys not much older than James who have a dog-stealing racket: they steal dogs and collect reward money for "finding" them. The boys force James to go with them and do what they tell him to do, and they keep him away from home overnight. "They made me ride for miles," he tells his aunts when he is finally home. "I went to Coney. I saw the Atlantic Ocean..."

As a child Alec, heir to the big house and only son of a bitter marriage, formed a close friendship with Jerry, a village boy who shared his passion for horses. In 1914 both enlisted in the British Army - Alec goaded by his beautiful, cold mother to fight for King and Country, Jerry to learn his trade for the Irish Nationalist cause. But amid the mud of Flanders, their relationship is tested by an ordeal beyond the horror of the battlefield...

The classic World War One novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Alec and Jerry shouldn't have been friends: Alec's life was one of privilege, while Jerry's was one of toil. But this hardly mattered to two young men whose shared love of horses brought them together and whose whole lives lay ahead of them. When war breaks out in 1914, both Jerry and Alec sign up - yet for quite different reasons. On the fields of Flanders they find themselves standing together, but once again divided: as officer and enlisted man. And it is there, surrounded by mud and chaos and death, that one of them makes a fateful decision whose consequences will test their friendship and loyalty to breaking point.

Whitbread Literary Award-winning novelist Jennifer Johnston's story of two young Irish men, whose defiant friendship spans class and, later, rank at the onset of World War I. Born to an aristocratic family on an estate outside of Dublin, Alexander Moore feels the constraints of his position most acutely in his friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Catholic laborer in town. Jerry is one of the few bright spots in Alec's otherwise troubled life. The boys bond over their love of swimming and horses, despite the admonitions of Alec's cold and overbearing mother, who scolds her son for venturing outside of his class. When the Great War begins, he seizes the opportunity to escape his overbearing mother and taciturn father, and enlists in the British army. Jerry, too, enlists - not out of loyalty to Britain, but to prepare himself for the Republican cause. Stationed in Flanders, the young men are reunited and find that, while encamped in the trenches, their commonalities are what help them survive. Now a lieutenant and an officer, Alec and Jerry again find their friendship under assault, this time from the rigid Major Glendinning, whose unyielding adherence to rank leads the two men toward a harrowing impasse that will change their lives forever.