Soldiers' Pay

The unforgettable tale of an American soldier’s return home from WWI by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Sound and the Fury.

Lt. Donald Mahon served as a fighter pilot in the Great War. After suffering a terrible head injury, he was released from the hospital with lost memories and a disfiguring scar. Now, back in America, he makes his way home to Georgia with the help of a fellow veteran and a young war widow. But as his health continues to decline, what home will be left for him?

First published in 1926, William Faulkner’s debut novel explores the horrors of World War I, the interior lives of veterans, and the fickle nature of small-town American life. It “tells an old story—as old as the Greeks—and older—as old as war and its folly” (The New York Times).