Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War (Vintage International)

Product Information

There are events in her life that run parallel to her grandparents' prewar life which are more acceptable in 1970s society. It is Stephen whom we follow throughout the story, he who carries us onto the battlefield, into the trenches and down those dreadful tunnels. Award-winning author and artist Julie Flett’s textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational relationships, shared passions, and spending time outdoors with the ones we love.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks | Books | The Guardian Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks | Books | The Guardian

review: A book in seven parts; the first being set in 1910 in France, where a wild affair between a young Stephen Wraysford and his host's wife(! Though employing an omniscient narrator who occasionally describes the events from a broad perspective, the novel tends to shadow a handful of characters closely, principally Stephen Wraysford, Isabelle Azair, Michael Weir, Jack Firebrace and Elizabeth Benson.

If you know anything about the war, whether it’s due to an interest in history, you’ve read books, you’ve listened to your grandparent’s talking about it… you know that this actually happened. In fact I wondered, prior to the war story beginning, whether I would want to complete reading the book. I loved the characters and they are so well developed that I found they not only had faces but voices and I had such a connection with each and every one of them.

Birdsong by Julie Flett | Goodreads Birdsong by Julie Flett | Goodreads

As Katherena and her mother move inland from the seaside, we are reminded of the rhythm of the seasons and the beauties of nature that are all around. Then you’ll need details of where the bird is found, what it eats, where it nests, how many eggs it lays, how the male and female adults differ and their size. She has made the final effort of love and redemption to the men who died and the circle with the past is closed. As illustrator and author, Flett takes us on a little journey through the year, showing Katherena and Agnes's friendship develop through the simplest things.I hate the sound of them and the thought of them, which is why I will not bring myself to remind you. I'm already a fan of Flett's artwork, having encountered it in My Heart Fills With Happiness, Little You, and We Sang You Home, all of which were written by others. It’s as though Faulks had decided that, after dutifully wading through volumes of war correspondences and field reports, he would create certain characters representative of the era and then assign random period characteristics to them. The final third, in which one of Wraysford's descendants enacts an oddysey into her lineage is not so well done.

Birdsong by Ellie Sandall | Goodreads Birdsong by Ellie Sandall | Goodreads

I found several reasons to entitle the book this way, not least Stephen's declaration regarding his feelings about birds and the reasons behind those feelings. Birdsong is a shocking book and there are many passages that made me feel sick to my stomach, angry and so sad that I had to actually stop reading and do something else for a while. Stephen and Isabelle’s story came to life in the early parts of the novel, but I found it somewhat difficult to connect with Elizabeth's character as we meet her in 1978. The chiffchaff's song is a repetitive "chiff chaff, chiff chaff, chiff chaff", occasionally with an extra note mixed in. Gorra described the novel as even more original than Barker's The Ghost Road and the rest of her Regeneration Trilogy.For de Groot, however, the split structure provides one of the most sophisticated elements of the novel. He falls head over heels for Isabelle, an older woman, who leaves her husband and stepchildren to begin a new life with her lover. Proof that you’re never too old for push-button sound books, this delightful volume helps you get to know the voices in your garden.

Identify bird song | The Wildlife Trusts Identify bird song | The Wildlife Trusts

The novel abounds in cliché: from trite aphoristic turns-of-phrase, to the overall story: very little strikes the reader as truly original or insightful. Wheeler emphasizes that the naturalistic tendencies of the narrative allow treatment of the war setting without an idealization of the "human" parts of the narrative. Françoise – Elizabeth's mother, the biological daughter of Stephen and Isabelle who was raised by her father and aunt Jeanne.There is to be no reunion, but he forms a friendship with her sister Jeanne who, like Gray, wills him to carry on. One of the most poignant parts of the book, for me, is the description of the feelings of the sappers as they tunnel deep below the battlefield, knowing that their counterparts are experiencing the same hopes and fears, only feet away through the awful mud and darkness. According to scholar Marzena Sokołowska-Paryż, Faulks treats the war as a way to "test human endurance" and explore the effect of carnage on the psyche. This is a lovely little picture book that spans the seasons and shows an intergenerational friendship between a little girl and her elderly neighbour. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time as it has all the elements of a 5 star read for me.