A moving history about humanity and war (Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks)

Member Name: jodenton

Product:	Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Date:	12/09/07 (650 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Factually accurate without the constraints of a history book

Disadvantages: Lack of confidence about the accuracy about some of the passages

I bought this book mainly because I am keen on warfare and its effect on people etc etc. This is the first novel I'd read on the first world war having read a couple of historical accounts etc which were good from a battle point of view and knowing what went on but were short on emotional impact I thought.

The first 100 pages were not what I was expecting and is set in France in 1910 when an Englishman by the name of Stephen is sent by his textile factory to come to France and learn new things about the business. He is housed by the family of a factory owner and falls in love with the owners wife.

The story follows the twists and turns of Stephen's life through his love affair and into the first world war where he is a commander. The book is a novel so it is hard to know where Faulks has used fiction in his descriptions and where he has used interviews/research but some of the war passages are tremendously impacting and some of the descriptions of injuries etc are quite horrifying.

Subsequent to the first passage about the war the story switches between Stephen in the war and the hunt by his granddaughter (set in the 1970s) for information about the war. The two eventually coming together at the end of the novel.

At times the story jumps around a bit and is hard to keep in context but I was moved by it in ways that I didn't think were possible having read a fair amount about war.

Summary: Well worth a read if, after you have read historical accounts you are lacking some WW1 humanity