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| Cover Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks |
Ebook: Birdsong (full prc, pdf, epub)
Author: Sebastian Faulks
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: Fiction War novel
Publisher: Hutchinson
Publication date: 16 September 1993 (UK)
Pages: 407 pp
Birdsong is a 1993 novel by English author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks' fourth novel, it tells of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I. Birdsong is part of a trilogy of novels by Sebastian Faulks, together with The Girl at the Lion d'Or and Charlotte Gray; the three novels are linked through location, history and several minor characters.[1]
The novel came 13th in a 2003 BBC survey called the Big Read which aimed to find Britain's favourite book.[2] It has also been adapted three times under the same title – for radio (1997), the stage (2010) and television (2012).
Amazon 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.
Review
"Magnificent - deeply moving" (Sunday Times)
"With Birdsong Faulks has produced a mesmerizing story of love and war... This book is so powerful that as I finished it I turned to the front to start again" (Sunday Express)
"Engrossing, moving, and unforgettable" (The Times)
"One of the finest novels of the last forty years" (Mail on Sunday)
"Amazing... I have read it and re-read it and can think of no other novel for many, many years that has so moved me or stimulated in me so much reflection on the human spirit" (Daily Mail)
"With Birdsong Faulks has produced a mesmerizing story of love and war... This book is so powerful that as I finished it I turned to the front to start again" (Sunday Express)
"Engrossing, moving, and unforgettable" (The Times)
"One of the finest novels of the last forty years" (Mail on Sunday)
"Amazing... I have read it and re-read it and can think of no other novel for many, many years that has so moved me or stimulated in me so much reflection on the human spirit" (Daily Mail)
