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    Birdsong
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    Birdsong
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    Birdsong
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Birdsong

    By Sebastian Faulks and Rachel Wagstaff

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    While staying as the guest of a factory owner in pre-First World War France, Stephen Wraysford embarks on a passionate affair with Isabelle, the wife of his host. The affair changes them both for ever. A few years later Stephen finds himself back in the same part of France, but this time as a soldier in the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest encounter in British military history. As his men die around him, Stephen turns to his enduring love for Isabelle for the strength to continue and to save something for future generations.


    For the first time, this beautiful and terrible story about love, courage and the endurance of the human spirit is brought to the stage in a version by Rachel Wagstaff, directed by famed director Trevor Nunn.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOberon Modern Plays
    Release dateOct 1, 2010
    ISBN9781849439312
    Unavailable
    Birdsong
    Author

    Sebastian Faulks

    Sebastian Faulks is the author of ten novels. They include the UK number one bestseller A Week in December; Charlotte Gray, which was made into a film starring Cate Blanchett; and the classic Birdsong, which was recently adapted for television. In 2008, he was invited to write a James Bond novel, Devil May Care, to mark the centenary of Ian Fleming. He lives in London with his wife and their three children.

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    Reviews for Birdsong

    4/5

    1,566 ratings102 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I re-read this after some 10-15 years (maybe more!) and was surprised to find how little I remembered. The trench warfare was vivid, as was the picture of the veterans in their care home, but little else seemed familiar.
      Still a highly evocative novel, but slightly ambivalent at this read through; Stephen and Elizabeth are aloof, observing individuals that you may empathise with, but never take to your heart. Or perhaps that's because I am an aloof observing individual. I suppose it feels a bit like real life, it never quite turns out the way you thought it would. Still, for all that a solid 4 star read.
    • 5/5
      What a beautifully literate and lyrical novel. I absolutely loved this novel and will seek out everything this author has ever written! Best book I've read in the last 5 years!
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books I will never get out of my head. Anyone who thinks war is a noble human endeavor should read this. Faulks’ prose is so rich and vivid, you feel like you are there in the muddy, bloody, stinking trenches of the Somme with Stephen. I had to read slowly to 1) savor every word and 2) it was so overwhelming I could only handle a little at a time. I cried more than once reading this.

      There are many love stories in this novel. The one I thought most compelling was the love that grew between Stephen and Jack Firebrace. The two men go through life and death and absolute hell together, you can’t experience something like that with a person and not be a part of each other.

      Holy cow, I don’t even know what else to say but READ IT
    • 2/5
      This was one of the texts required to study for the for AS World War One literature module of English Literature. Perhaps then, this is why this novel did not resonate with me at all.

      The structure was interesting but the interesting and sometimes captivating passages set during the First World War were the novel's only redeeming features. Faulks was able to vividly recreate the horror of trench warfare and yet every other aspect of the novel felt tired and trite; as for the "modern perspective", it felt particularly unnecessary.

      There are plenty of good novels and poems that deal with World War One ably; Faulks attempts to do so and yet falls short. It seems unfortunate that All Quiet on the Western Front or The Good Soldier Švejk were not chosen instead.
    • 5/5
      Birdsong is broken into seven different sections covering three different periods of main character Stephen Wraysford's life, 1910, 1916 - 1918, and 1978 - 1979 (the last being through the eyes of his granddaughter, Elizabeth). When we first meet Stephen in 1910 he is a young Englishman sent to France to observe operations at a textile mill in Amiens. It is there that he meets the beautiful and lonely Mrs. Isabelle Azaire. From the moment they meet, their attraction to one another is instantaneous and unavoidable. Even an innocent activity like pruning in the garden speaks volumes of what is to come. It isn't long before the two give in to their carnal desires and commit adultery. If you are shy about sex scenes, there are a few you may want to skip. The second encounter in the library is pretty racy! The attraction between the lovers is so strong that Isabelle runs away with Stephen, only to be wracked by guilt causing her to leave him a short time later. We don't know what happens to this couple after Isabelle's leaving. This is a mystery that hangs over the next section of Stephen's life.When we meet up again with Stephen it is six years later and he is a soldier, sent to work in the tunnels below enemy lines. This section of the book, covering World War I, is incredibly graphic and haunting. Faulk's portrayals of battle are as realistic as they are heartbreaking. Interspersed between Stephen's World War I experiences is the life of his granddaughter, Elizabeth. When she becomes curious about his life she sets out to learn all that she can and ends up learning more about herself in the process. History repeats itself and comes full circle for Wraysford's legacy.
    • 4/5
      Birdsong is a multi-layered compelling story of personal love and loss and of the horrors of World War I in the trenches. It spans time from pre-war 1910 to the war years to the late 1970's. The protagonist is Stephen Wraysford, a young man who visits Amiens, France in 1910 on assignment from his employer to learn about the French textile trade. Stephen is hosted by the Azaire family whose patriarch is a textile manufacturer. Isabelle is the wife of the widowed Azaire. She is the youngest daughter of an overbearing family who has married Azaire through an arrangement. Isabelle is unable to conceive a child with Azaire who descends into cruel behavior toward her. Stephen is drawn to Isabelle in a torrid affair resulting in her leaving Azaire to live with Stephen. After trying to establish their own life, Isabelle, overcome by guilt, leaves Stephen without notice.The novel shifts to 1916 where Stephen has become an officer in the British army. Here, and throughout the war chapters of the book, is described the horrendous conditions that the soldiers experienced in the trenches. The incredible slaughter of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 is featured, a futile and horrific sacrifice of the British in an attempt to break through the German line. Faulks's depiction of war fare in the Great War is vivid and shocking.The novel shift abruptly to 1978 where a young women, Elizabeth Benson, discovers some papers in her mother's attic that intrigue her. It appears that her grandfather, whom she hardly knew, was in the first world war. Most fascinating find is a diary written in a sort of code. She takes the diary to an amateur cryptologist who sets about trying to decipher it.The book turns back to the war in 1917. Stephen has survived some war wounds and while on leave returns to Amiens. He encounters Jeanne, the sister of Isabelle, and with her help reconnects with Isabelle. Isabelle has suffered a facial wound in a shelling of her home and we learn that she has become the lover of a German officer who had been quartered in their home. Isabelle and Jeanne both conceal that Isabelle has a young child. Isabelle leaves for Munich to be with her German lover and Stephen and Jeanne develop a friendship over several months.Stephen's unit is stationed with a detachment of miners whose role is to mine tunnels under the German lines to plant explosives. The Germans are doing the same and there are bloody clashes as they periodically encounter each other. At the culmination of Stephen's war experience he goes on an underground scouting mission with a miner. A bomb detonated by the Germans that traps Stephen and a miner. The tale of Stephen's escape from the underground is a depiction of an ascent from hell. Much of the metaphorical of thepower of the novel derives from the images of being underground in trenches or tunnels.Elizabeth pursues the mystery of the diary. When it is finally decoded and she learns of the terrible war experiences of her grandfather and that Stephen has married Jeanne after the war. When she reveals this to her mother she learns that her mother is not the daughter of Stephen and Jeanne, but is the child of Stephen and Isabelle. Isabelle died of influenza after the war and the child was brought up by Jeanne and Stephen.This is a richly textured story of love, loss, degradation and the abysmal atrocities of the war. It is incredibly powerful, particularly in its depictions of the life in the trenches and the horrible affects of the war on those who fought it. There is nothing glorious about what these men endured and its darkness gives us the perspective on war that we should hold.
    • 4/5
      Overall, I enjoyed reading of Sebastian Faulks' "Birdsong." This is a really ambitious book -- a mishmash of romance and war stories.Set in World War I, the sprawling book follows Stephen Wraysford, as he and Englishman who falls in love in France and eventually finds himself fighting with the English during World War I. The book spans the generations and comes together nicely in the end.The book does have some failings-- Faulks' pacing is off.... nothing happens for a while and then everything rolls to a conclusion a little too quickly. But I found the story was compelling enough that I had a hard time putting it down.
    • 4/5
      The scenes of WW I trench warfare will make anyone claustrophbic. The author also uses a flashback technique that some readers find distracting. But the parallel plots (today vs WWI) made for a very interesting book club discussion.
    • 3/5
      The novel spans the life of Stephen Wraysford before and during World War I (1914-1918), and also the life of Stephen's granddaughter, Elizabeth, as she tries to find out more about her grandfather's war experience. It moves between France 1910; France 1916; England 1978; France 1917; England 1978-1979; France 1918 and England 1979. Elizabeth's mother was the result of Stephen love affair with married woman Isabelle Azaire in France. Maybe I've just read too many war stories of late but I had to skim pages in my attempt to finish this novel. The part that touched me most was the description of the end of the war on pages 484 and 485.
    • 3/5
      My father recommended this to me many years ago and apart from a few key factors I don't remember a great deal. It is set during a war and a man is trapped underground and as to essentially blow his way out of the ground. Almost like Andy Weirs The Martin or Flight of the Phoenix it explores, in minute details, the movement of hundreds of pounds of explosive back and forth in a tiny place with little to no air with the view to a grand explosion/ Nice writing and I did not struggle with the pace or details, it just did not grab me by the boys and most war books do.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed the bit where Isabelle catches some of Stephen's cum in her mouth, but otherwise I was a little unsure of this novel at first; but as the story went on it grew and grew in power. He has this way of giving you these little details, I don't know if he's imagined them or found them in accounts of the war, but they're amazing and made the whole thing feel real to me.Interesting to see the similarities to The Girl at the Lion d'Or: the orphan, the slightly freckled woman, adultery and that massive metaphor of excavation mirroring a character's psychological condition.
    • 4/5
      Birdsong is brilliant, and harrowing, and for once I felt a book with a modern character looking for a connection to her past really did a decent job with that element (although I see many reviewers disagree, and find that part of the novel distracting and dissatisfying). The action takes place in three time periods...1910, 1916-1918, and 1978. Most of the time, the reader is in the trenches, and more significantly under the trenches, of WWI battlefields with Stephen Wraysford, one of the young men for whom Hemingway and Stein created the concept of une génération perdue. Faulks has filled in for me what I always found missing in Hemingway...the hideous reality that took away those young men's understanding of "normal life", and replaced it with a sense of bewilderment and disorientation that could not be shaken off by a return to the world they left behind in 1914.Review written in June, 2014Read in conjunction with the WWI centenary
    • 4/5
      Birdsong was passionate and yet dispassionate, graphic yet cold, unflinching yet painful. It was a study in contrasts as is often the case with the subjects of love and war. The author does not glorify love or war but rather exposes their ugly underbellies – what happens when desperation takes hold. The descriptions of war were almost poetic in their brutality. Love was not as romantic as dreamers like to think it is. I felt the horror of it all, particularly the battle of the Somme, and saw how it could destroy a man or change him irrevocably. The ending was appropriate but seemed almost cliche compared to the rest of this remarkable book. I highly recommend it for readers of historical fiction, especially those interested in World War I.Favorite quotes:“What happened a few miles away was kept secret. None of these men would admit that what they saw and what they did were beyond the boundaries of human behavior” (p. 136).“There were in their own view a formidable group of men. No inferno would now melt them, no storm destroy, because they had seen the worst and they had survived” (p. 270).“The random violence of the world ran supreme; there was no point in trying to find an explanation” (p. 328).
    • 5/5
      Deserves to become a classic. Sometimes amusing, sometimes comic, sometimes unbearably moving. Everyone who loves books and good writing should read this book.
    • 5/5
      Historical fiction is not my usual type of book but my friend gave this one to me for my birthday and after the first chapter i was hooked, i just had to keep reading on.what can i say except this should be a classic. brilliantly written. bought me to tears many times.
    • 4/5
      I've had this sitting on my To Read pile for many many years. A book that I feel I should have read... And now it's one of the Bardcamp plays I thought I ought to read the book first.It's an engaging book. Slower than I'm used to (but that's because I read teenage fluff most of the time). I didn't know much about it, and so was surprised to find the love story at the start - I was expecting a book about war. Being a child of a mouthier generation, I am always slightly caught out by repressed love stories - their ankles brush, so he knows it is love. She is worried, so leaves him immediately and never tells him about his child. And obviously the 'he loses her and then ends up with her sister' trope always feels a bit strange. Maybe that is the point. War is horrific and makes people do strange things.The war chapters are horrific. I have read a reasonable amount of gore in my life, but the author does not pull his punches. I'm not sure if I learnt much about the first world war, or was just reminded of a lot of things I knew already. Mud and sudden death.One thing Birdsong does well is capturing that sense, both of war time and non fiction, that random things just kind of happen. There is a story and plot, and some central set pieces, but there's a feeling of not quite being part of a plan in the war, which reflects the chaotic lives of the soldiers well.This book has one of the best descriptions of a religious experience - a sudden 'feeling at one with everything' - that I've encountered. I wish I had time to read it all again and work out why it's called birdsong. The main character is petrified of birds, so it's not just a fluffy 'we get through this and it's dawn and the birds sing'Also, it's a Babies Are The Happy Ending book. So if you don't like those, be wary.[Having read the other reviews, I must be the only reader in the world who liked Elizabeth and the bits with her in. The contrast between Stephen's time and her time is powerful. She might be a bit too conveniently naive for the story, but particularly now we are 100 years away from the war, that didn't feel too unconvincing to me. And it is just nice to read about an independant clever woman making unconventional decisions that work for her. Although I do think the fact that her partner is cheating on his wife and having a baby with another woman is played down too much to make us feel happier for Elizabeth and him.]
    • 4/5

      This book tells the story of Stephen Wraysford and the events that shape his life during WWI, the Great War. Starting in pre-war France and moving on in time, it deals with Stephen's experiences in love and war. It begins in 1910 when Steven discovers his first love. It's not so much love, however, more a young man's lust idealized as love. And, that, sadly, was to be interrupted by war. It will provide much necessary yearning for the young Steven who goes off to that terrible war.

      The battlefield scenes are very descriptive, making difficult reading at times, as the reader is engulfed in the trenches and tunnels as if witnessing the carnage and the brutalities of War first hand. Stephen loses more and more of his innocence and humanity, and looks upon death as expected rather than feared. As his humanity diminishes in the face of the horridness of battle and the claustrophobia of the tunnels he finally experiences a resurgence of the will to live. Life, however, will be far different than what he imagined before the war to end all wars.

      The only part of the book I didn't like was, that after reading almost half of the the book set in WWI times, the story flashes forward to 1979 and Stephen's grandaughter and her search for information on her deceased grandfather. While there was some interesting aspects of her story, I felt like it just didn't belong.

      The book, though, is an admirable novel of WWI of which there are too few. WWI truly should have been a warning for the future but sadly.....we now have drones and a supposedly sanitized way of war. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning why we should abandon warfare.
    • 1/5
      Without a doubt, this was the most boring WWI/trench warfare book I have ever read. Both the characters and the plot were confusing. If I didn't have this dreaded compulsion to finish everything I start, this book would have been pitched by page 50. Yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzz
    • 5/5
      SPOILERS AHEADPart One: France 1910 Stephen Wraysford, a young English man, travels to France for business. He stays with Azaire and his family while he complete his work. He soon finds himself falling for Azaire's young second wife Isabelle. She is a few years older than Stephen and the two soon embark on an affair. We learn that Azaire is cruel to his wife and Stephen had a horrible childhood and was left with no guardian or caretaker for much of his youth. Also, he's got a serious fear of birds, which judging by the title I think might be a bit of foreshadowing. So Isabelle and Stephen decide to run away together. Leaving her husband and step-children, the two lovers begin a life together in France. Stephen works during the day and even though they love each other, they grow a bit distant as they adjust to their new circumstances. Isabelle, struggling with her guilt over their affair and he fear that she will have a miscarriage, leaves Stephen to go live with her sister Jeanne. That's where we leave the tragic couple. Part Two: France 1916Six year later and we are in the midst of World War I now. My first thoughts, where is Stephen, where's Isabelle? Did she have the baby? But I think we'll have to wait awhile for those answers. We meet Jack Firebrace, a tunneler working for the English. We do soon meet Stephen again, but he's a cold officer in the army. We see Stephen get injured and then dumped with the corpses. Oh my gosh that was a chilling scene! Stephen is terrified of abandonment and so these moments, when he thinks he is about to die, bring that fear into a sharp focus. “He would die without ever having been loved, not once, not by anyone who had known him. He would die alone and unmourned. He could not forgive them – his mother or Isabelle or the man who had promised to be a father.” He slowly recovers and we get a horrifying glimpse of other injured soldiers in the hospital. He and his friend Michael Weir are reunited behind the lines when Stephen reuses to take the leave offered to him. We also learn more about Firebrace and tragically about the death of his young son. I was surprised by how heartbroken I was for him. He is surrounded by death and yet it’s miles away, safe in England, where tragedy strikes his family. The scenes on the battlefield were simply terrifying. I haven’t read another book that showed World War I in such a vivid and frightening way. I’d never thought before of how scary it must have been for the soldiers to come up against tanks and machine guns. These were often quiet farmers and machine warfare was a completely new concept. “He watched the men harden to the mechanical slaughter. There seemed to him a great breach of nature which no one had the power to stop.”Part Three: England 1978We travel forward to the ‘70s where we meet Stephen’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Benson, a successful business woman embroiled in an affair with a married man. She begins to research her grandfather’s time in World War I after finding some of his journals. Part Four: France 1917:Back in France we see Stephen return to the small town where he met Isabelle. While there he stumbles across her sister Jeanne and then eventually meets up with Isabelle. She is both physically and emotionally changed; scarred by the war and in love with another man. Stephen soon finds himself corresponding with Jeanne after saying his goodbyes with Isabelle. Back at the front Weir is once again terrified of what the future will bring. In one scene he tries to say a preemptive goodbye to Stephen in case anything should happen to them and Stephen rebuffs him. Stephen is so cold and dismissive, but he obviously acts that way because he can’t stand the thought of losing someone else he loves. Weir is killed before Stephen can apologize. Part Five: England 1978-79: We’re back with Elizabeth as she learns about WW I. A few blind dates, attempts to break Stephen’s journaling code and then an unexpected pregnancy leave her life in turmoil. Part Six: France 1918Our finally section with Stephen is so painful to read I could hardly stand it. He and Jack Firebrace find themselves trapped underground after a regular inspection of the tunnels goes awry. The two men take solace in each other, talking about their lives and their loves as they try to dig their way out. Then Jack dies and once again my heart broke. Stephen is found by German soldiers who are grieving the loss of their own men and in that moment it doesn’t matter what color their uniforms are, they are brothers in grief. Part Seven: England 1979Elisabeth, pregnant with her child, learns the truth behind her mother’s parentage. She is the daughter of Stephen and Isabelle, but was raised by Stephen and Jeanne. When Elizabeth has her baby, naming him John after her Jack Firebrace’s son who died too young, she brings the story full circle, new life balancing death. My Thoughts: The final few chapters are so intense. The whole book feels like it lopes along at a steady pace, then in those final 100 pages there is just such an overwhelming feeling of both joy and sorrow. There’s a constant give and take: Stephen lives, but Jack dies, Elizabeth has a baby, but Jack looses his son. The balance of the destruction and devastation of war is pitted against the enduring nature of love, especially that between a parent and a child. I've never read something that pairs the two so beautifully. It's not a light read, but it is enthralling. About 3/4 of the way in I wasn't sure how I felt about the book, I really wasn’t loving it, but that final section just moved me. I felt the loss of Weir and Firebrace deeply and my heart went out to Stephen who will always struggle with the guilt of surviving. In my opinion this book will probably elicit a strong response from anyone who reads it. I think many people would hate it. It’s too slow-going in the beginning, it drastically changes format, from a love story to a war story, there are some unnecessary characters (like that guy Elizabeth was sort of dating in Part Five), there are descriptions of sex that are distasteful at best, etc. And while all of those things affected my reading experience, the thing that I walked away with in the end was an incredibly powerful picture of trench life in WWI and the lifelong impact of friendships born during wartime. The desperation and fear of the men being overwhelmed by their bravery in the crucial moment, the neglect of later generations to learn about and appreciate all that was done for them by soldiers who fought for their country; that is what I will remember. BOTTOM LINE: It is a flawed novel, but one that left me reeling with its realistic portrayal of war. It is one of very few war novels that I can say impacted me deeply on an emotional level. Don’t expect perfection, but try it if it sounds interesting to you. “A sense of interest was beginning to penetrate the blankness of his grief; it was like the first, painful sensations of blood returning to a numbed limb.”  
    • 5/5
      Birdsong is one of those few books that haunt you even after you have read the last word. A quote from the first part of the book truly describes its writings. "The function of music is to liberate in the soul those feelings that normally we keep locked up in the heart". This book does the same. It opens up a plethora of emotions experienced by the reader with every passage in the book.
      This book focuses on the life of Stephen Wraysford, a World War I veteran, while channeling into the life of his granddaughter Elizabeth Benson, who tries to know more about her grandfather and his war experiences. Faulks sections the novel into seven parts starting with the introduction of a young Stephen Wraysford and his unfulfilled love with Isabella Azaire and concludes with Elizabeth fulfilling her grandfather’s promise made to a certain comrade. Faulks crystal clear writings run smoothly over pages engrossing the reader to feel the heart wrenching emotions of an incomplete love, the psychological effects that a war had on the soldiers and its aftermath. A certain section that touched my heart was the part of the letter writings between the soldiers on the war front and their kin. Makes you wonder how we easily forget those who fight on the brink of death to keep us safe and alive.
      It is a truly brave and passionate read. Stephen Wraysford, Isabella Azaire, Jack Firebrace and Michael Weir simply do not seem to leave my memory. I may just revisit them soon.
    • 1/5
      This book makes me angry with its sentimental approach to the subject of the First World War.
    • 4/5
      What a powerful story. The graphic description of life in the trenches for a soldier in WWI was chilling and awing. I find myself dissatisfied with the ending, but only because I want to know more. The characters were compelling and their struggles, hopes, and heartaches were conveyed very well. Not an easy read because of the subject matter but definitely one I would recommend for its writing style and very human themes.
    • 4/5
      After the BBC adaptation of 'Birdsong' was broadcast on tv, I knew that I had to read it. I'd enjoyed the complexity of the plot on tv, and I hoped to get into this in the novel. Although I liked reading the novel greatly, due to watching the tv series, I had particular preconceptions of characters that I found were interpreted rather differently from how they were portrayed in the novel. Isabelle's innocence is one of these ideas that somehow got caught up strangely in my head between the tv drama and the novel.HOWEVER, despite these criticisms, they are purely down to my situation at the time of viewing. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. For me, it combined good amounts oh history, which was obviously well researched, and literary charm. This gave it such an edge that I found myself drawn into the novel even further each time I picked it up. It was a novel that I really had to stick by, and I think the reader needs to be alert, and not just passively reading the novel, or else they can't get the maximum benefits from it. Overall a good read though.
    • 4/5
      On the one hand this book, with its detailed glimpses into the trench warfare of WWI, affected me greatly. The author did an incredible job of depicting the heart-wrenching reality of the war and of life in the trenches. And of the senselessness, horror, sorrow, and moments of redemption within it all. He clearly is a skilled writer and many of the passages from the war were truly haunting and will stay with me for a good long time. But, despite this, I found other sections of the book were emotionally flat. The characters were well described, I could really see them clearly, yet they moved in and out of the story without engaging me or without seeming to serve much purpose. Stuart, in the modern-day side-story of Elizabeth and her quest for information about her grandfather, is one such example. What happened to Stuart and where did he go? In fact the whole story of Elizabeth seemed tacked on somehow. Nor did I really engage with the first part of the book, the love story between Stephen and Isabelle. Apart from a couple of explicit love scenes, I didn't get any sense of depth of feeling between the two characters. The author told me about the feelings the characters had but he didn't make me believe him. But maybe he really just wanted to tell the story of the war and most of his energies went into doing that because he certainly did a good job there. Maybe the other parts were just padding.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed it especially the war scenes although I found Stephen Wraysford to be unsympathetic, and a bit cold for a romantic hero. The mens' camraderie in the trenches was moving and the death at the end was unexpectedly moving. It kept you turning the pages towards the end to see what would happen as well as any thriller.
    • 5/5
      When I picked up this book, I thought it was about the war - I completely overlooked that this was a Love Story set in the war. It took me by surprise then kept me hooked, I spent most of my time reading with my heart in my chest, being unable to predict where the story would go and I could almost smell the trenches. Thoroughly recommended.
    • 3/5
      I was very much looking forward to reading this book set in a period which fascinates me, the early 20th century and WWI, and had big expectation considering it was the recipient of many awards and mentions and seemed to be highly appreciated by LT readers. Though there were many elements there to hold my attention, I never quite connected with the story or the characters. Stephen Wraysford finds himself on a business visit in Amiens, France in 1910, where he quickly falls in love with his host's wife, Isabelle Azaire. She is the much younger wife of a local textile baron with whom she has little in common, and in no time at all she and Stephen are exploring their passion and sexuality in very explicit erotic interludes which had me blushing and simultaneously worried I'd picked an erotica book by mistake. But the reality of war and trench warfare comes in stark contrast to this love affair. This part of the novel, which makes up a good part of the story is just as explicit in describing the battles and countless deaths and maimed bodies, and while the anti-war message is made amply clear, the disillusionment Stephen goes through failed to touch me, because the spectacle of blood and gore and flying body parts made me feel like an indecent voyeur and as such cut off from complex emotions. The added layer of story, with Stephen's granddaughter attempting to decipher some of the encrypted diaries he left behind felt awkward and unnecessary. If it was meant to provide a different perspective from which to view the events, it didn't quite work for me. Having said all that, it's a good story and I did appreciate much of the narrative, but it failed to impress and is not one that I'll be likely to revisit.
    • 3/5
      Birdsong was supposed to be a love story between Isabelle (a married woman with two stepchildren), and Stephen (a young Englishman) during the WWI era. About halfway through the book, Isabelle just sort of drops off the face of the Earth, and runs off with Max. Her sister seems to fill a void in Stephen's life. There are too many soldier names to keep track of, and the book was just plain old boring. It wasn't quite a full love story, and it wasn't quite a war story either. It was bits and pieces strung together, and it just didn't make for interesting reading.After reading the book, I just didn't feel invested in the characters. The book did, however, make me more interested in learning about World War 1, and the living conditions that the soldiers had to endure during trench life. Overall, I felt that the book had no solid storyline to hang its hat on, and it took me a long time to finish it, not because it was long, but because it just didn't hold my interest.
    • 5/5
      Quite perfect. Disturbing, haunting, lingering. Things none of us wants to read about but each of us should, and presented in a way that is by no means didactic and is so utterly realistic that it's hard to believe the author wasn't there to live it himself.My only beef with the book was the "modern-day" sections, which, although the story was nice, seemed unnecessary. They felt a little like a concession to the demands of an editor or the public (and this was confirmed by the author's foreword). But undoubtedly one of the best novels I have ever read.
    • 4/5
      First, the cover of this edition is gorgeous. I decided to read this one as there is a BBC mini-series happening next week. (Sadly it has the actor who played Angel Clare in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which is why I hate knowing who will be in movie/show versions before I read the book, his name was ironically Angel for a reason.) It is also on the '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die' list. The first hundred pages is a bit slow-going for me, as it involves the start of an affair, which really doesn't interest me. But then that just makes the action of World War I more intense when it starts up. Wow is there action. I think that was the purpose of the first hundred pages. Really, mainly the people that the main character Stephen Wraysford is closest to, are those he fought with in the war. He has no one sending him care packages, when another soldier says he gets two a week. The war is intense from the very first page it is featured, and most of it involves underground tunnel digging to both listen to the enemy and plant explosives. I don't want to say too much to ruin it for others. I didn't feel the affair needed to take 100 pages, when compared to something like war, it isn't very important, though because Stephen Wraysford is an orphan and thinks that no one cares if he lives or dies, it's important to him. An excellent example of war fiction here. Comments after watching the BBC show: The show is very good, but they did take some liberties with the story. The story in the show makes it more emotionally gripping, I think, and it's well paced, but it is missing some key moments in the book that make the book really great. In both the book and the movie Jack Firebrace is my favorite.