Trovo discutibile la scelta delle parole in copertina, la definizione di questo libro come un libro che parla di tre donne. I didn't really feel caught up in it until the second half, when it settles down and became (for me) far more involving and moving. Hadn't realised that Louisa Young is also the author of LION BOY, so I've just started to read that too.

The second true historical story that is central to this novel is the work of Harold Gillies – a doctor who was also an Army Major. It did a very good job of conveying the various facets of war, the experience for those in the trenches, in the hospitals and stranded at home.The explicit theme of the book is the effect that the First World War had on people’s lives – not just those who fought but those left behind – all of the characters lives are turned upside down, all have faced horrors and all have to face a world where “it” is “over” and they have to rebuild their lives knowing they are forever affected and having to choose (as a poetic piece at the end of the story sets out) whether to allow the horror to overwhelm them/continue to try to shut it out or whether to accept it and move on through a healing process.

Toch ziet niet iedereen de toekomst somber in, Rose Locke – Peters nichtje en Rileys voormalige verpleegster – beseft dat er voor haar als vrouw onafhankelijkheid in het verschiet ligt. The story is based during the span of the first world war with a core of characters who are quickly built into very believeable people. The book was beautifully written, and I've come to the conclusion that not every book is meant to be read quickly.

She followed that with her Egyptian trilogy of novels: Baby Love (which was listed for the Orange Prize), Desiring Cairo and Tree of Pearls. Is there something about the fact that no one is left alive to tell -- or criticize the veracity of -- the tale that has led to a recent flourishing (to the already robust genre) of trench literature, usually somehow connected to a story of the folks at home, maybe poets, maybe artsy? Riley: He has a bit of a same sex encounter and decides to run off to war to prove he's a real man, not a "nancy.

The three women mostly function as lenses into women’s lives at the time, and Young can’t resist a bit of authorial-standpoint posturing about feminism, the role of women and social change. At eighteen years old, working-class Riley Purefoy and “posh” Nadine Waveney have promised each other the future, but when war erupts across Europe, everything they hold to be true is thrown into question. The advance copy that I was given had a statement that proclaimed that the book was the most powerful book that I would read all year. I felt like you really got a good sense of who she was and her thoughts and her feelings, which made it much easier to connect with her.Riley and Nadine have been in love with each other since childhood, but Riley’s poor upbringing and lack of a true social standing made it impossible for Nadine’s upper class family to accept him. The Children's Book by A S Byatt beautifully conveys the pre-war era while the under-rated Half of the Human Race by Anthony Quinn also addresses the changes in the role of women in society. The first half of the book is about the experiences that the five have adapting to the realities of war and the shifts it brings about in their relationships.