There are so many wonderful books that it can be very difficult to know where to start in listing and talking about my favourites. But I've been in a bit of a Hemingway mood lately, so this classic, one of the first I read, comes to mind. I just finished reading Hemingway's 1950 novella, Across the River and Into the Trees, which turned out to be a kind of older, jaded uncle to A Farewell to Arms. It was a very engrossing read, beautifully written in that inimitable Hemingway style (which you either love or hate, I suspect), and very moving. I haven't read a novel or story by the man that I haven't liked. But nothing that he wrote before or after Farewell carries the same extraordinary emotional urgency and depth. This is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful love stories of all time, and by far one of the most tragic. I've read very few books by anyone that grabbed me by the heart and tore me up like this one.
It's hard to know what to believe in at the end of a Hemingway story. You come to believe deeply in love, and then find that even that seems to fail. That was quite possibly how Hemingway saw the world. He wasn't a happy man, after all. I don't agree with everything he says; at some points, I agree with very little. But there's an incredible emotional truth to all his stories, and his understanding of human brokenness is almost unparalleled.
If I were to give some order to a list of my favourite books, I'm not sure where this would come, but it would have to be near the top. There are few books like it in the world. You may not feel happy when you finish reading it, but you will feel enriched. Just try reading it without being deeply, profoundly moved.
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