Birdsong - Softcover

Faulks, Sebastian

4.1

78,636 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784700037 ISBN 13: 9781784700034

Publisher: Vintage, 2014

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Birdsong is a mesmerising story of love and war spanning three generations between WW1 and present day.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

1910. Amiens, Northern France. Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman, arrives in the French city to stay with the Azaire family. He falls in love with unhappily married Isabelle and the two enter a tempestuous love affair. But, with the world on the brink of war, the relationship falters. With his love for Isabelle forever engraved on his heart, Stephen volunteers to fight on the Western Front and enters the unimaginable dark world beneath the trenches of No Man’s Land. From award-winning writer Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong is an exceptionally moving and unforgettable portrait of the ruthlessness of war and the indestructability of love.

‘Magnificent – deeply moving’ Sunday Times

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Also available by Sebastian Faulks as part of the French trilogy series:
The Girl at the Lion d’Or
Charlotte Gray

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Product Description:

Birdsong is a mesmerising story of love and war spanning three generations between WW1 and present day

The wartime classic behind the BBC drama starring Eddie RedmayneTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

1910. Amiens, Northern France. Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman, arrives in the French city to stay with the Azaire family. He falls in love with unhappily married Isabelle and the two enter a tempestuous love affair. But, with the world on the brink of war, the relationship falters. With his love for Isabelle forever engraved on his heart, Stephen volunteers to fight on the Western Front and enters the unimaginable dark world beneath the trenches of No Mans Land. From award-winning writer Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong is an exceptionally moving and unforgettable portrait of the ruthlessness of war and the indestructability of love.

Magnificent deeply moving Sunday Times

Also available by Sebastian Faulks as part of the French trilogy series:The Girl at the Lion dOrCharlotte Gray

Review:

Readers who are entranced by sweeping historical sagas will devour Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks' drama set during the first world war. There's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married, the wife of a wealthy textile baron. Wrayford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according to plan. Wraysford is haunted by this doomed affair and carries it with him into the trenches of the war. Birdsong derives most of its power from its descriptions of mud and blood, and Wraysford's attempt to retain a scrap of humanity while surrounded by it. There is a simultaneous description of his present-day granddaughter's quest to read his diaries, which is designed to give some sense of perspective; this device is only somewhat successful. Nevertheless, Birdsong is a rewarding read, an unflinching war story and a touching romance.

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