The Emperor of Ice-Cream

“One of his best.”—London Review of Books

During the Second World War, Gavin Burke defies his nationalist family to join the Air Raid Precautions unit in Belfast, his rebellion against the religion and politics of his father.

The War offers Gavin a new life, “war was freedom, freedom from futures”, and freedom from the suffocating society of his youth. He makes new friends, discovers poetry and new experiences. Then the War comes to Belfast and Gavin is thrown into a devastating air raid where he must prove himself if he is to escape his father’s world.

“His clean, lucid prose, his storytelling gift, his almost eerie ability to get inside the heads of his characters (men and women) and his courage in raising moral issues.”—Los Angeles Times

Brian Moore was born in Belfast in 1921. He served with the British Ministry of War Transport during World War Two and emigrated to Canada in 1948 where he became a journalist. His first novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, was published in 1955.

Moore moved to the USA in 1959 and published 20 internationally acclaimed novels. Brian Moore died in 1999.

“The simple excellence of Brian Moore… accessible to everyone… by concentrating simply, directly and bravely on the primary sufferings and passions that everyone feels.”—New Statesman