Generals Die in Bed is Harrison's famous novel, often called “the great Canadian war novel.” An unnamed young Canadian soldier's account of warfare, both in the trenches and behind the lines, in France during the First World War. The novel is well-known for being most real and graphic in its description of warfare. Generals lie in bed, while soldiers die in the trenches, horrifically, unimaginably, infested with lice and surrounded by rats fattened on corpses. There are no rules in war. And there is certainly no glamour. Instead, the men inhabit a senseless world, trusting only the instinct to stay alive.

Based on his own experiences in the First World War, Charles Yale Harrison writes a stark and poignant story from the point of view of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front. In raw, powerful prose, the insanity of war is shown clearly as Harrison questions the meaning of heroism, of truth, and of good and evil.