William Faulkner 
Soldiers’ Pay 

After the end of World War I, a group of soldiers traveling by train across the United States are on their way home. One is horribly scarred, blind, and almost entirely mute. Moved by his condition, a few civilian fellow travellers decided to see him safely home to Georgia, to a family that believes him dead—and a fiancée who grew tired of waiting. This is William Faulkner’s first novel, a powerful tale of lives blighted by war.