Time Was
Novella 26,159 words Recommended by 5 award/anthology sources
Emmett buys an old book at a venerable book store’s going-out-of-business sale and finds a World-War-II-era letter from a young man to his lover. Trying to learn who the author was, he finds one surprise after another.
Quasar links out; the story lives on Tor Novella, where the author gets the click.