top of page
A%20Beckoning%20War%20cover%20%20low%20res%20%20(1)_edited.jpg

A Beckoning War

March 24, 2016

Captain Jim McFarlane, a Canadian infantry officer, is coming apart at the seams. It’s September 1944, in Italy, and the allied armies are closing in on the retreating Axis powers. Exhausted and lost, Jim tries to command his combat company under fire, while waiting desperately for letters from his wife Marianne. Joining the army not out of some admirable patriotic sentiments but rather because of his own failings and restlessness, he finds himself fighting in a war that is far from glorious.

Farley Mowat based his beautiful and wrenching anti-war memoir, And No Birds Sang, on the Italian campaign in World War II. Now with echoes of war ringing again, Matthew Murphy has taken the same campaign to tell a story of love and war, brilliantly capturing our ambiguous relationship to war.


A Beckoning War is a modern story on a modern theme based on past events. It is both exquisitely written and meticulously researched.

If you would like to purchase this book then feel free to click one of the sales links below--or order it from your local bookstore.

Baraka Books     Amazon.ca      Amazon.com     Indigo


Click to add this book on Goodreads or use the widget below.

A Beckoning War: Derniers articles

Praise for A Beckoning War

“Creditable first novel. #WW2 in Italy.” Margaret Atwood on Twitter

“Montreal Writer Matthew Murphy’s debut novel is told in prose that is muscular, explicit, disturbing, and yet so poetic it can leave the reader dazed and breathless. … A Beckoning War is the product of an amazing new talent.” Paul Gessell, Quill & Quire

“Murphy has a poetic style that at times follows Hemingway’s stream-of-consciousness path into a shell-shocked soldier’s fevered dreams. He vividly and movingly tells the story of many frightened young men who went off to fight what they thought would be a glorious war but found only pain and suffering.” Publishers Weekly

“Rendered in beautifully poetic prose… An empathetic yet flawed man drives this wonderful novel, the first from an author ready for a glittering literary career… All is done in exquisite style that places the readers squarely in the action.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“This is a startlingly good book… Mr. Murphy manages to maintain an even, constant tension in his writing, keepIng us firmly inside Jim’s mind as he deals with the horrors of warfare, the loneliness of command and the helplessness he feels when it comes to his estranged wife, thousands of miles away… A Beckoning War immediately goes on my long list for “The Very Best” Awards for 2016.” The Miramichi Reader.

Click here to listen to an audio excerpt.

Click here to read a list of related books recommended by me.

A Beckoning War: Text

Feel free to add A Beckoning War on Goodreads.

A Beckoning War: HTML Embed
bottom of page