Random Harvest' is a novel written by James Hilton. It was first published in the year 1941. Written in four large parts, the novel is set in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the Second World War. It is told in the first person of Harrison, and by means of two extended external analepses tells the story of Charles Rainier, a wealthy businessman and politician, from the time he was invalided out of the army during World War I, his subsequent memory loss and partial recovery, his assuming control of the family business to his attempts to recover his memory just as Hitler invades Poland.