Review by The Mole
The story is about Stephen Ryan, a maths student from Dublin and follows his life from the start of the first world war when he volunteers and becomes an officer in a Dublin regiment.
I was warned it would be about family conflict around the Easter Uprising because so many are. It wasn't.
It's a love story that so rings true it is beyond belief. It is about family in conflict during war. It is about stress and trauma on the battlefield. It is about 'bravery' whatever that actually is. It is about social class.
This book was a brilliant book. It was compelling to read as well as easy to read.
The story takes Stephen from conflict to conflict while at the same time building a bond between himself and his younger brother and finds this shy, if not aspergic, individual falling for Lillian, a student at the same university before the war. It exposes Stephen to about every form of shock and trauma that the war could throw at him in an effort to try to get the reader to understand the full horror that a war can create.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough and if it doesn't make the best seller lists for 2010 then there is no justice. Please, Please try this book.
Publisher - Macmillan
Genre - adult, war, fiction
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