Across the River and into the Trees

“Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”

Ernest Hemingway's most misunderstood novel is a haunting, elegiac meditation on love, war, and the dignity of facing death head-on. Set in the winter chill of postwar Venice, it follows Colonel Richard Cantwell, a fifty-year-old American officer with a failing heart, through the final three days of his life .

The colonel spends his last hours in the city he loves, reuniting with Renata, a beautiful eighteen-year-old Venetian countess who offers him solace and a fleeting taste of youth . As he drinks in Harry's Bar, dines at the Gritti Hotel, and hunts ducks in the cold lagoons, his mind drifts back through the battlefields of two world wars—from the trenches of World War I to the bloody campaigns of World War II . He talks of friends lost, honors earned, and the crushing weight of command. Through conversations with Renata, he confronts his mortality not with despair, but with the stoic grace of a soldier who has seen too much to fear the end.

This is Hemingway at his most reflective and vulnerable: a novel about the ghosts that haunt us, the love that redeems us, and the courage it takes to say goodbye . Though critics initially dismissed it as the work of a tired writer, Across the River and into the Trees is now recognized as a crucial bridge to the masterpieces that followed—a raw, unflinching portrait of a man who, like Hemingway himself, refused to go quietly .

• Published in 1950, Hemingway's first novel in a decade following the acclaimed For Whom the Bell Tolls

• Spent seven weeks at number one on The New York Times bestseller list

• A deeply autobiographical work exploring the lasting trauma of war, the ache of lost time, and the search for peace

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

• Ebook: DRM-free EPUB compatible with Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, and all major e-readers.

• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the hardest battle is learning to let go.

About the Author

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, he served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War I, an experience that shaped much of his work and his lifelong fascination with Italy. Across the River and into the Trees was written in Italy, Cuba, and France in the late 1940s, a period of personal turmoil for Hemingway . Though the novel received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success and marked an important transition in his career, leading directly to the triumphant The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He died by suicide in 1961 and is buried in Ketchum, Idaho.