Kovacs' War : A World War One Novel

Kovacs' War, an engaging novel by Donald Robert Wilson, tracks the adventures of foreign correspondent Peter Kovacs through World War I from 1914-1918. Kovacs departs for Europe, leaving his wife to care for the children and return to a career in nursing. As he reports the violence of the war, his own personal adventures become equally remarkable. Witnessing wartime barbarism firsthand he becomes lost and disillusioned, entering into a love affair with a beautiful nurse despite the family he loves back home. A British intelligence official coerces Kovacs into conducting espionage for the Allies by threatening to reveal his affair, leading him far astray from merely reporting the war. He narrowly escapes death during three separate missions in Germany, Belgium and Persia. In between these exploits, Kovacs risks his life numerous times to write first-hand, explicit dispatches of the horrors of life in the trenches that will hopefully influence American public opinion and keep the United States out of the foreign conflict. As a result of the continuing stalemate in France, ultimately he concludes that the Allies cannot win without American intervention. His recent spying experiences draw him into a vital role needed to convince his country to enter the war. Back in the United States, Kovacs' wife has received hints that her husband may be living with a woman in Paris. Sensing the potential loss of the husband to another woman, she travels to France as an army nurse to fight for her marriage and her husband. She discovers that he has become seriously injured,and she clashes head on with his paramour as they attempt to save the life of the man they both love.