Description: In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy.
Brief description: Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy--An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light--as well as The Long Gray Line and other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, a George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.
Review Quotes:
"Majestic... Atkinson's achievement is to marry prodigious research with a superbly organized narrative and then to overlay the whole with writing as powerful and elegant as any great narrative of war."
--The Wall Street Journal
--The New York Times "In The Day of Battle, Rick Atkinson picks up where he left off in An Army at Dawn, his history of the North African campaign, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. A planned third volume, on the Normandy invasion and the war in Europe, will complete The Liberation Trilogy, which is shaping up as a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written, thick with unforgettable description and rooted in the sights and sounds of battle . . . He excels at describing the furor of battle, and the Italian campaign provides him with abundant raw material. . . Mr. Atkinson, a longtime correspondent and editor for The Washington Post, conveys all of this with sharp-edged immediacy and a keen eye for the monstrous and the absurd."
--The New York Times "Monumental ... With this book, Rick Atkinson cements his place among America's great popular historians, in the tradition of Bruce Catton and Stephen Ambrose."
--The Washington Post "A very fine book .... Anyone who devoured An Army at Dawn with relish will be delighted with Atkinson's account of the Sicilian and Italian campaign."
--The New York Times Book Review "[A] fascinating account of the war in Sicily and Italy."
--USA Today "Gripping .... [Atkinson] combines an impressive depth of research with a knack for taut, compelling narrative."
--Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) "Splendid ... the infantrymen who did the fighting will grab at readers' hearts."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"With The Day of Battle, Atkinson again proves himself to stand among the ranks of our most talented popular historians ... Required reading for anyone with an interest in the battles of World War II."
--Austin American-Statesman "A seamless, stunning narrative that is the equal of An Army at Dawn .... Atkinson's success lies in his ability to render bare war's wretched realities in astounding prose."
--Contra Costa Times