<p><strong><em>Alfred and Emily</em> is an intimate and revealing book by Doris Lessing, the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and author of <em>The Grass is Singing</em> and <em>The Golden Notebook</em>, that explores the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by the Great War</strong>.</p><p>In this profoundly moving book, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing explores the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by the Great War. In the fictional first half of <em>Alfred and Emily</em>, she imagines the happier lives her parents might have made for themselves had there been no war. This is followed by a piercing examination of their relationship as it actually was in the shadow of the devastating global conflict.</p><p>"Here I still am," says Lessing, "trying to get out from under that monstrous legacy, trying to get free." Triumphantly, with <em>Alfred and Emily</em>, she has done just that.</p>