No Man's Land

English soldier Adrian Garrard finds a ``no man's land'' in the midst of a World War I battle, and it's a place no reader will forget. Garrard is a retired general when we meet him, and we, like his grandson, Adrian, see him as a stereotype of a stodgy military man. He even gives his grandson an old pistol for a birthday gift. But young Adrian has no way of knowing the meaning of the pistol, and he doesn't find out until his grandfather is dead and he's a man-on-the-make. What he learns about his namesake will stun him with breathtaking irony, and he seeks urgently to determine if what he's learned is true. Steeped in a time and a war unfamiliar to many, this novel, a bestseller in England, is a powerful story. (Jan.)