Great book - not often I enjoy a novel set in WW1 - a baker deserts when called to the front, befriends a French woman and later doesn't want to return home. The parts set in 1968 of the family planning a reunion trying to find out what really happened to Harry, was at first a distraction from the main story but it was also important to understand the attitudes of the family at the time (not wanting to know about his desertion and dying in an accident in France 10 years after the end of the war) somehow changing it to a heroic death on the battlefields.
John is a talented writer. Odd title - Harry's War might be better. ( )

I found this a lot slower moving and less interesting than his first book, Furies. The story alternated between now and then and had many points of view, to look at the difficulties of recreating the past, and knowing all about a person. So we had young Julie in the present day, writing to various relatives to find out what she can about Uncle Harry to present at a family reunion. Either she meets with ignorance, longheld views that resist change, or deliberate obfuscation by those interested in preserving the family's honour. Then there is lumpish Harry, almost girlish in the way he does his mother's bidding, ordered up to the front in WWI France. Recreating what happened next takes up most of the story. I never felt that Harry had much emotion or feeling to him, and I kept worrying that all the different characters would have an important role, which I couldn't keep track of. It ultimately fell a bit flat for me. ( )