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Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
1993, 483 pages
Fiction
As the 100th anniversary of the First World War approaches, it seems appropriate to revisit novels like the masterfully-crafted Birdsong, originally published in 1993. In a remarkable story that spans three generations, celebrated author Sebastian Faulks brings the trenches to life for today’s readers in a way that few other authors could. Birdsong is the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who begins an affair with a married French woman before being hurled into the battlefields of war-torn France. He experiences nearly every possible horror and deprivation before returning from the front, only to find that his love cannot possibly survive the strains war-life has put upon it. In rich and exacting prose, Sebastian Faulks delivers an outstanding story of romance, compassion, loyalty, despair and insurmountable grief, and brilliantly resurrects the ghosts of this long-past war.
