Soldiers' Pay

Set after the conclusion of World War I, Pulitzer Prize–winning author William Faulkner’s first novel explores the war’s emotional impact on weary veterans as they travel by train across the United States to their Georgia hometown. The condition of one soldier—scarred, blind, and nearly mute—inspires fellow travelers to see him home safely to a family that believes him dead—and a fiancée who has moved on.

With experimental narrative techniques mixed with literary modernism, this early Faulkner classic captures the atmosphere of America’s Lost Generation and marked the beginning of the author’s legacy as one of the most influential fiction writers in American history.