Using letters between soldiers and their loved ones, parents, sweethearts, wives, and children, this compilation traces the emotional and psychological ways New Zealanders made sense of the upheaval they experienced during World War II. Contrary to stereotypes, these writings show movingly and graphically that New Zealand soldiers were able to maintain a sense of their prewar selves and their connections to home through feats of the imagination and messages of love, hope, and longing that they sent back home.