Title: A powerful WW I novel fought in the minds of the combattants
Product review: This first novel of a trilogy of World War I is the most powerful although it was the last one, Ghost Road, which won the prestigious Booker Prize.The setting is a hospital in England for those recovering from shell shock. The protagonists are a psychiatrist and his patient who is opposed to the endless slaughter of the war. Clearly to "cure" the patient, to find him sane, is to send him to his probable death.The entire novel takes place within the hospital yet the horror of this war is omnipresent, the images sharp and overwhelmingly strong and sad. It is an amazing book because of the author's ability to portray the horror of war without being in the battlefield and the permanent scars left on the psyche.Interestingly this novel has been built on the foundation of meetings between real people. I found this book irresitible and memorable, and immediately read the rest of the trilogy, but it is this one that is haunting.
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