Excellent book with information on the WWI and its aftermath through the eyes of a surviving brother and his sister-in-law. So many people had no idea whether their loved ones were dead, alive, missing. France and Belgium were completely disseminated during the war. I wonder about Germany. It took a long time to reach any conclusion. Main characters excellent ( )

It’s spring 1921, two and a half years since the Great War ended, yet for many, painful uncertainty continues. Edie Blythe of Manchester is one who lives with that burden. Coping with her husband Francis’s presumed death in October 1917 has hurt her enough; the absence of definitive proof is excruciating. But as the story opens, Edie receives a photograph of Francis, undated, unaccompanied by any letter or identification, and the French postmark is only half-legible.

Nevertheless, she’s convinced that in the photo, Francis appears significantly older than she remembers him from his final home leave in September 1917, which means he may still be alive. Naturally, she can’t account for the photograph, though she invents wild theories. In any case, she sets out for France to try to track him down.

Meanwhile, Francis’s younger brother, Harry, is trying to trace him too. Since the war, he’s become a photographer—as his missing elder brother was, curiously enough. Normally employed to take studio portraits, Harry has been sent to the war cemeteries of France and Belgium — still very much under reorganization and construction — to photograph gravesites or places mentioned in soldiers’ letters home. The bereaved parents or spouses paying for these photographs want tangible images to hold onto, perhaps proof of their loss, and they can’t afford to visit the ground themselves.

A worthy task, preserving memories, yet Harry aches. He’s the only Blythe brother of three to return from the war, which already causes him survivors’ guilt; witnessing so many graves lashes him to a pulp. Equally painful, he’s always loved Edie. But he’s never acted on his feelings, and he believes he did nothing wrong by harboring a yearning. However, he’s pretty sure Francis figured it out and held it against him — and maybe Edie does too.

From this elegant, emotionally rich premise comes a novel of great power and psychological complexity. Both Edie and Harry are lost, even as survivors, as they try to find a way to continue living. You can’t help feeling drawn to them, Harry especially, as they struggle to do the right thing, whatever that is, not knowing whether they dare to hope for a happy future.

As an aficionado of First World War fiction and historian of that era, I applaud Scott’s portrayal of the time and place, which feels utterly lived in, testament to her scholarship and authorial skill. Besides her lost souls, she has the battlefield, the soldiers’ banter, the trenches, the mud, the postwar French towns trying to rebuild; all of it, rendered in breathtaking simplicity.

Tens of thousands of soldiers died without a known grave, a mind-boggling tragedy which Scott has conveyed from many angles. Every note rings true, with the exception of the Blythe brothers’ company officers, who seem too lenient concerning certain lapses of discipline, on which the plot more or less depends. I think that’s forgivable, but I dislike the author’s occasional misdirection to give the reader false assumptions, while the characters, you find out later, knew the truth. That creates tension, but it’s an ungenerous trick.

Those are quibbles, however, when the narrative and the writing style take wings. With words strung together like these, a thorough sense of place, and a story so deep and moving that it won’t let you go, The Poppy Wife is a superb novel.

Warning: If the title and cover strike you as awkward, clichéd, or dumbed down (as they do me), don’t be put off. For the record, the British edition is titled The Photographer of the Lost, which makes more sense, as does the UK cover. I can think of several reasons Morrow repackaged the book, not least that they’re trying to position The Poppy Wife as women’s fiction. Is it Edie’s story or Harry’s? I don’t think it matters. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It drew me in from page one and kept me interested all the way to the end. I had no idea I knew so little about WWI until I read this book. A great book for historical fiction fans.
*Easy-to-read
*Entertaining
*Great world building
*Informative
*Page-turner
*Wonderful characters
*Haunting
*Could-not-put-down ( )

Everyone in the book is miserable and grieving after the war. Harry and Edie have trouble communicating about the fate of Francis. All very sad. ( )

3.5 stars.

Set in 1921, The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott is a poignant novel that offers a heartbreaking glimpse of families searching for answers about their missing and deceased loved ones after World War I.

Edie Blythe is shocked to receive a picture of her husband, Francis, four years after he is reported missing during his service in World War I. This raises many questions including whether or not he is still, in fact, alive. Edie reaches out to her brother-in-law Harry who served with his brother during the war. Harry is certain his brother is dead, but, like Edie, there is a glimmer of hope Francis might have survived. Harry is already traveling throughout France taking photos of soldiers' graves for their grieving families. Using Francis' photographs to guide him, Harry retraces his brother's footsteps in hopes of finding out the truth.

Written mostly from Harry's perspective as he endeavors to find the graves of fallen soldiers, he is quite introspective as he flashes back to his wartime experiences. The pages are filled with long, descriptive passages of battles and military life. While the prose is quite descriptive, the story gets bogged down with the lengthy, overly detailed passages. In the present, Harry meets many interesting people on his journey which provides readers with insight into how former soldiers and their families cope in the aftermath of war.

Several chapters are written from Edie's point of view as she wrestles with the possibility that Francis is still alive. Her remembrances of her husband are tender yet a bit painful as she realizes how much war and loss changed him. Edie sets out on her trip to try to learn the truth about Francis. After a shocking discovery, Edie returns home where she tries to put her grief and guilt behind her.

Inspired by Caroline Scott's family history, The Poppy Wife is a very bittersweet novel that highlights the uncertainty families endured when their loved one is declared missing. I highly recommend this educational novel to readers of historical fiction. ( )