In a word: Wow!

The first 50 pages or so didn't grab me. A lesser reader would probably have DNFed it at that point or even sooner, or would have seen it for something else entirely. I plowed on, of course, but I am so glad I did. The rest of the novel gave the beginning the context it needed, and that context was better served to be delayed.

The book follows several timelines before and during WWI and in the late 1970s. It's ultimately a soldier's story and exploration of the human condition and what is truly valuable in this world.

The characters are complex, very well fleshed out, and extremely varied. This is a book for a more mature audience, an audience who has experienced complex relationships and perhaps even horrifying trauma in their lives. A younger less experience reader probably will not understand the relationships and the decision characters have made throughout this novel.

A tremendous novel. A tremendously moving novel. Recommend.