ISSUE #15: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

A HEMINGWAY CLASSIC, For Whom the Bell Tolls sold about half a million copies within months of being published in 1940 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Drawing on his own experiences as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War, the novel chronicles the life of an American named Jordan, who is swept into the conflict and churns with it after meeting and falling in love with Maria, a young Spanish woman beset by tragedy at the outset of the war. Driving between love, loyalty, duty, fear and betrayal, Hemingway brilliantly captures the brutality and humanity experienced during this time in Spain’s history.

To this day, For Whom the Bell Tolls, remains among my all-time favorite novels because it’s during the uncertainty between conflict and chaos that we, as humans, truly test the fiber of our being.