A World History by William H. McNeill

From the author of the widely praised novel The Lake, the River & the Other Lake--the love story of a man and a woman who choose an unconventional way to redefine themselves during and after World War II.It’s 1944 and Wink Dutton, a former illustrator for Stars and Stripes, has returned to Chicago after an injury to his drawing hand gets him an unwanted discharge from the service. Renting a room in the back of the camera shop run by Sal Chesterton--the wife of one of Wink’s buddies still stationed in the Philippines--Wink is surprised to learn how Sal is making ends producing pinup photos for the soldiers’ favorite girlie magazines. In fact, she’s using herself as a model. When Wink becomes a partner in her covert enterprise, it’s the beginning of an unspoken romance that manages to be both sexy and innocent--a romance that grows and deepens as the two discover in themselves and each other a kind of ingenious practicality that readies them, together, for a rapidly changing postwar world. Wink and Sal are charmers, and Steve Amick has captured their time and generation with uncanny freshness and flair. In their unexpected journey he gives us a beautifully understated love letter to the America that helped shape them.