My Austrian Love

First published in 1917, this novel subtitled The History of the Adventures of an English Composer in Vienna, and which purports to be 'Written in the Trenches by Himself', tells the story of a mystery surrounding a beautiful young woman with whom the narrator, Patrick Cooper, has a chance encounter on a train from Salzburg to Vienna, who he then discovers to be Mitzi, his landlord's daughter (and the 'Austrian love' of the title), when he takes rooms in pre-WWI Vienna. Interspersed with this light romance set against a musical background are glimpses of Cooper's life in the trenches eight years later as he fills any spare moments recording the earlier events. In the final chapter, Cooper lies wounded in a field hospital after the Battle of the Somme where he is briefly reunited with Mitzi's former lover, and his rival for her affections, from whom he discovers her fate. As he is recuperating in hospital an unexpected performer at a concert to entertain the wounded leads to a happy ending.