The Saltbox Olive by Angela Antle

The Saltbox Olive follows the wartime route of Arch, Tombstone, Slade, and Garl, members of the 166th British Army (Newfoundland) Artillery Regiment. After surviving the battles of the Sangro and Cassino, they are all but forgotten by British HQ. Left on their own in the mountains between Florence and Bologna, where war loses all semblance of logic, where their loyalties are tested, they encounter acts of brutality, revenge, and loneliness. As their stories weave into those of Caroline and others, she faces the truth of individual responsibility in wartime, and how both sins committed in times of duress as well as declarations of love can ripple outward for generations. The Saltbox Olive traces the connections of the past to the present and the conflict between the simple truths we desperately crave and life’s complex realities.