Told in two volumes, Arise the Dead--part memoir, part historical fiction--spans the period between 1914 and 1945. The two books concentrate on the lives of real people--the author's parents, the author, a young pilot from New Jersey in WW1, and others--as well as some fictional characters, all of whom lived through one or both of the wars and were profoundly affected personally by them. Arise the Dead I, told mainly from the viewpoint of the author's father, focuses on the First World War, specifically the Battle of Loos in northern France (September 1915) where the author's father fought with the 8th Battalion of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and where he was wounded.