The Invisible Glass

From Amazon.com:

"Some thick sheet of invisible but horribly tangible plate glass is between them and the world."-W.E.B. DuBois, Dusk of Dawn

Set against the backdrop of the Italian front at the end of World War II, Loren Wahl's controversial novel recounts, in a compact narrative set in five intense days, the passions and prejudices that boil inside an African-American company of soldiers commanded by a racist white captain and visited by an Italian-American lieutentant who falls in love with one of the soldiers. Originally published in 1950, The Invisible Glass explores themes of homophobia and racism as well as their relationship to each other and to the culture of the military-a topic that is still making headlines today.

Virtually nothing is known about the author. The name Loren Wahl is most likely a pseudonym.