In 1918, Ernest Hemingway failed a vision test to become a soldier, and instead volunteered for ambulance service on the Italian front, where he was wounded and twice decorated. Recuperating in Milan, he fell in love with an American nurse, and his experiences became the basis for this 1929 novel, which Vita Sackville-West called "a most beautiful, moving and human book"; it is also the inspiration for the classic 1932 film starring Gary Cooper.