The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

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Set against the backdrop of the running of the bulls, The Sun Also Rises follows a group of American and British expats from Paris to Pamplona in the 1920s. Disillusioned by the repetitive, aimless Parisian party scene, the group travels overland to the Festival of Fermín for the "wonderful nightmare" of the week's events.

The book centers on the relationship between Jake Barnes, a World War I veteran with a wound that has made sex impossible, and his love interest Lady Brett Ashley, the unavailable and unattainable English woman who epitomizes all things chic and contemporary.

Hemingway's terse syntax reads as precise and concise as ever in this debut novel, and upon its publication in 1926 established him as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.