<div><b>The powerful, award-winning novel of World War II, which <i>Publishers Weekly</i> called “a small classic, deeply touching and true.”</b><br><br>In the spring of 1946, ex-corporal Sam Richardson returns home from the “forgotten war” in Burma to his hometown of Wigton in Cumbria, England, to the joyful relief of his young wife, Ellen. He finds a town in which, seemingly, little has changed: the same twisting alleys, weavers’ cottages, and medieval archways; and the same lack of prospects for an uneducated, working-class man like himself.<br><br>Sam, however, has changed. The war has not only left him with traumatic memories, which he tries to suppress, but also given him greater self-confidence and broadened his horizons. From her wartime jobs, Ellen, too, has gained a sense of independence she does not want to give up. And then there’s six-year-old Joe, a baby when Sam volunteered, who can scarcely remember his father. As all three strive to adjust, the bonds of love and loyalty become stretched to the breaking point.<br><br>With this absorbing story of one family, Melvyn Bragg conveys the experience of millions in the aftermath of the Second World War.<i>The Soldier’s Return</i> is a taut, profoundly moving novel by a writer at the height of his powers.<br></div>