Jerusalem in 1945 is a city in flux: refugees from the war in Europe fill the streets and cafés, the British colonial mandate is losing steam, and tensions are on the rise between the Arab and
Jewish populations. Arriving onto this complex scene is Felix Latimer, an orphaned adolescent whose father served in the British foreign service in Iraq. Felix is deeply lonely after the death
of his mother, but it is clear that he will find no comfort in his new guardian, Miss Bohun, a devoted member of the fundamentalist Christian group the Ever-Readies who has little love for
anyone but her God. Instead Felix turns his affections toward the other residents of Miss Bohun’s boardinghouse, particularly the curmudgeonly ex-soldier Mr. Jewel and the fascinating young
widow Mrs. Ellis. Soon Felix is caught up in unfamiliar networks of hatred, jealousy, and love.
In School for Love, as in her epic Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning fuses the heartbreak of war with the heartbreak of life, creating rich psychological portraits of people who
carry on even when the world is coming to an end.
