This was not an easy read. It goes into horrific detail about the suffering of the soldiers in the first world war. Not in terms of statistics, but with a painful account of one man and the people he interacted with. Faulks does it very well, which makes it all the more painful. And a good thing too; this is not the sort of war story that glorifies violence, but prose that makes you understand the inhumanity of warfare. All the time whilst I was reading it, I was thinking of the front in Ukraine.
Like many books, this one covers different time periods. I am often a bit confused in books with flashbacks, loosing track of when I am. This book does that much better, large sections clearly set in different times with no possibilities for confusion. Thank goodness.