"Birdsong" By Sebastian Faulks

Okay, so I recently finished this book, like what? Last week, I think. I just want to take this opportunity to say that I have never have cried when finishing a book, not even after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! The thing is, it wasn't even a sad ending, well, it was incredibly bittersweet I'll say that. I juat want to apologise for this mega long review, it was neccessary!
It's 1910 and the book begins with our twenty year old protagonist Stephen Wraysford arriving at the house of the Azaires, the family he is to stay with during the time he was given to work in his benefactor's textile factory. He explores northern French life and gets to know the Azaire family while becoming increasingly curious about Azaire's wife, Isabelle. The two eventually fall in love and have a doomed affair which leads to them running away, tearing the Azaire's apart. However, once Isabelle realises she is pregnant with Stephen's child she leaves him without a word. Flashforward six years and we're in the middle of the First World War, we are taken along Stephen's perilous journey to get through the war and his complicated relationships with the soldiers around him. While the war is continuing we are often taken forward to another generation, 1978. Here we are introduced to Elizabeth who is moved by information she has found out about the First World War and goes to all lengths to find out every piece of information she can about her grandfather.

It seems that the book jumps around a bit, it does. But the story is so satisfying so this doesn't present itself as a issue becuase the charcters are so brilliantly handled. Stephen comes to France, a young yet very serious man. He is often described to stare a lot, and come across as quite an imposing figure yet he doesn't really say very much or express himself often which is what made him so compelling for me to read about. No one is ever sure about what is running through his head and even Isabelle whom remains the first woman he ever loved was uncertain about him. During the war, the soldiers consider him mad and strange because of his resilience and determination to stay alive and get through the war despite his passionate hatred for it. But that is what I think the book is, he is a strange character and throughout the novel you realise that Stephen doesn't really understand himself and the war acts as a catalyst for him to find himself amongst his heartbreak (Isabelle) which has turned him cold and his humble beginnings in life. It's a search to find that sympathy, care and tenderness again that he desperately needs (MILD SPOILER!!!) and eventually finds with Jeanne, Isabelle's sister which arguably makes her the heroine of the novel.

The romance at the beginning moved me, I'm not going to lie. It was a goooood hundred pages or so and normally I can find romance quite difficult to read becuase sometimes it can come across as too soppy or too detailed when describing emotions and feelings where it just reaches the point of repetition which can often be tedious. But this was perfect becuase you were sometimes given insights to how the characters were feeling but you were never fed what was running through their heads, you knew it was passionate, that was certainly made edvident from their first time of making love together moments after Stephen had proposed the affair! But the focus wasn't only the romance, it was them getting to know eachother during the affair, it was the effect of their forbidden, intimate relationship on others around them. That was what made it interesting for me.

The First World War scenes have to be some of the greatest character moments I have ever experienced with a novel. I swear, reading this, it was so vivid I could've been sitting in a cinema watching the war play out right in front of me. We follow a group of different soldiers that all have certain connections with Stephen in the novel, or will. Prominent characters are Jack Firebrace, a tunneller who is unable to go on leave to tend to his dying son and Captain Weir who Stephen forms a close relationship with and views as the only person he ever felt he had experienced traumatic experinces with all the way through. The gory images that are illustrated during certain parts of the book stay with you becuase they are so horrifying along with the frantic battle scenes that manage to mention the boy soldiers who are nothing but horrified and shocked to see the reality of what they had signed up for.

At first I wasn't sure of Elizabeth and her role in the1978 part of the book becuase I wasn't at first aware of where it was leading. But when she became interested in the War that was when I knew it was going to work because there always had to be a connection between her and Stephen, it was just what that connection was going to be. I loved her moments of dicovery in Northern France and finding out about all the soldiers. I loved the gradual revelation throughout the third act of the novel so that it wasn't suddenly bombarding you with information.

Overall, a great novel well worth your time and my tears. If you do decide to check it out, look out for a certain tunnel scene towards the end of the book with two prominent characters that just had my heart sinking and my eyes glued to the pages. I heard that someone has the rights to make this a film and all I can say is cast wisely. If you don't have the right Stephen, you don't have a potentionally very great Birdsong movie adaption. Maybe they should consider an unknown actor so people will be interested to know more about the character than be thinking about something else they've seen him in.

All I can say is, read it.

*****