Known for its autobiographical elements, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of Frederic Henry, an American lieutenant stationed in Italy during World War I. There, he meets and falls in love with an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Though the horrors of the war threaten to pull them apart, Henry and Catherine face impossible odds to be together. With sparing prose and a realistic account of war, Hemingway portrays the existential disillusionment of the Lost Generation in the postwar years.