"Birdsong" Preview Post

So, I finally decided to get off my sorry lazy butt and post up the preview post for our July book "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks. Hopefully you guys have started reading it, so this preview post probably won't be any surprise to you but here it is anyways. And just as a warning, this preview will not be anywhere near as intelligent as Laine's.

"Birdsong" was published in 1993 by British author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks has written two other books set in France that are connected by minor characters including "Charlotte Gray" and "The Girl at the Lion D'Or". He has become one of the most popular writers in England and his stories are often about Modern European and American history. Most of his stories feature similar themes, namely contrasting themes of love/war, violence/peace and how they exist in the same reality for people.

Birdsong tells the story of Stephen Wraysford before, during and after World War I. The story covers three different time periods and is split into seven sections. The first is before the war when Stephen is 20-years-old and traveling in France to learn about the manufacturing business where he ends up having a disastrous affair with the business owner's wife. The story then jumps ahead six years later to his life in the war and also about the life of his granddaughter Elizabeth.

While the story jumps in its timeline, it's largely episodic. While Stephen is the main protagonist, it also features a lot of supporting characters that are fleshed out and given backstories as well. It is told as a third person narrative and focuses largely on the lives, details and experiences of the soldiers in World War I, including the psychological implications the war had on the soldiers as they try to return to a normal life after all they have seen and done.

I'm not particularly a fan of war novels but I've heard great things about the book and hope you guys will enjoy it! Since I've started reading it, the detail in it has made me somewhat uneasy but I suppose that's kind of the point. Faulks doesn't glorify war but instead focuses on the reality of it.

Also, Toby Stephens, who is my new obsession, has done a BBC Radio dramatization of it. Therefore, I will now be spending the next little while obsessively looking for it.

Tune in near the end of the month for the discussion post and enjoy!