Literary Nonfiction. THE WAR REQUIEM blends memoir, research, and historical fiction in order to explore Benjamin Britten's dynamic piece of choral and orchestral music, War Requiem, Op. 66. Written to commemorate the new Coventry Cathedral's consecration (following World War II bombing), Britten's composition blends the Latin Mass for the Dead with nine poems by Wilfred Owen. Just as Britten's piece pulls together many threads and subjects, this book braids three separate stories of Britten, Owen, and the author, to better understand the process of art-making and the lasting effects of both art and war