Eliezer Pinsky, the protagonist of Morley Torgov’s new novel, The War to End All Wars, doesn’t figure to be long for the world when we first meet him. A Russian Jew, he’s a reluctant First World War conscript in the Tsar’s army, circa 1917. He’s stuck in a foxhole, waiting to go over the top and engage the enemy in one final, futile battle. He’s also about to discover he’s been selected to lead the charge, forced to follow the orders of his anti-Semitic lieutenant.

As it turns out, Pinsky survives while the rest of his battalion is wiped out. Of course, this kind of quirk of fate, not to mention quirky characters, are typical in the fiction of Torgov, two-time Leacock Medal for Humour winner for A Good Place to Come From and The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick. But The War to End All Wars has a surprisingly serious side, too, as Torgov explores themes like misplacement, solitude, prejudice, and the wrenching adjustments required of immigrants in the early part of the 20th century.

When we see Pinsky again, it’s 1925 and his luck is still holding. He’s changed his name to Elliot Pines (and somewhat improbably speaks impeccable English) and opened a clothing store in Oreville, a small town in Michigan. He’s also openly feuding with the Sternbergs, also Jewish immigrants and the owners of the only other clothing store in town. In fact, Karl Sternberg was, unlike Pinsky, a war hero, an officer in the German regiment leading the attack on Pinsky and his doomed comrades on the Eastern front. This old enmity gives an added dimension to the small town rivalry between Pinsky and Sternberg; it also demonstrates how the grudges of the Old World are invariably transferred to the new one.

Torgov assembles a colourful and idiosyncratic cast of small town characters – the gossipy cab driver, bootlegging thugs, sharp lawyers, and the woman who runs the local speakeasy. Torgov’s story does take a few too many improbable turns and has a jarring habit of switching tones – from historical fiction to farce to melodrama. It also gets sidetracked with a trial scene that lasts too long, but The War to End All Wars has a couple of saving graces. One is the tender and unlikely love story between Pinsky and his bitter rival’s sister-in-law, Hannah Sternberg. The other is an unexpected act of courage by Torgov’s normally reluctant hero.