Birdsong
Good Books rating 3.94
Technical:
- ID: 26
- Added: 2025-08-10
- Updated: 2025-09-02
- ISBN: 9781849439312
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
- Published: 2010-10-01
- Reviews: 4
While staying as the guest of a factory owner in pre-First World War France, Stephen Wraysford embarks on a passionate affair with Isabelle, the wife of his host. The affair changes them both for ever.A few years later Stephen finds himself back in the same part of France, but this time as a soldier in the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest encounter in British military history. As his men die around him, Stephen turns to his enduring love for Isabelle for the strength to continue and to save something for future generations. For the first time, this beautiful and terrible story about love, courage and the endurance of the human spirit is brought to the stage in a version by Rachel Wagstaff, directed by famed director Trevor Nunn.
Reviews
Pull quotes
- Any attempt to tell the truth about war lies beyond language, for that truth is too awful both to tell and to comprehend.
- The “birdsong” of the title stands for the voice of a lost generation and also represents the voice of art, which attempts, and necessarily fails, to capture it.
- Faulks captures this as Wraysford is commanding a detail of men digging a huge trench that... is meant to be a mass grave for the fallen after the Battle of the Somme.
Pull quotes
- "I am driven by a greater force than I can resist. I believe that force has its own reason and it's own morality even if they may never be clear to me while I am alive."
- Faulks' writing is truly outstanding, the fear and hopelessness felt by the men is made vivid and terrifyingly portrayed.
- "I saw the great void in your soul, and you saw mine."
Pull quotes
- Love in a time of trauma bonding: Birdsong exemplifies the heart and soul of male friendship during wartime.
- The story blends love and trauma in a compelling way.
- Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pull quotes
- BIRDSONG is anything but lightweight.
- It's most definitely for adults and you would have to be utterly devoid of feeling to say you were unaffected by it.
- The novel evokes a powerful emotional response.