Set in Africa during World War I, this novel’s broad subject is the extension of the European conflict to other regions of the world—in this case, the heightening of the competition between Great Britain and Germany for colonial control of eastern Africa. The title of the novel derives from the irony that what for the British seemed likely to be a brief and relatively bloodless campaign developed into a prolonged and ugly conflict. In fact, although the British surrounded the Germans in what is now Tanzania on both land and sea, the German colonials in East Africa would surrender only after the Kaiser’s capitulation in Europe made further resistance pointless.
More narrowly, the novel treats the romantic triangle involving two British brothers, Gabriel and Felix Cobb, and Charis,
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Citation: Kich, Martin. "An Ice-Cream War". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 April 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6621, accessed 23 April 2024.]
