Darya Scherbyna Scherbyna itibaren 16510 Aliseydi Köyü/Mustafakemalpaşa/Bursa, Turkey itibaren 16510 Aliseydi Köyü/Mustafakemalpaşa/Bursa, Turkey

** spoiler alert ** Won novel from goodreads giveways I thought this was a great novel. Written to understand every detail. It was an easy/quick read. I loved the story. The bond between the father and son is unbeleivable. I didn't like the father in-law. I found it weird that he told Norman to sign a contract because of the food chopping. Overall I recommend this novel. It was really interesting.

I gather from the new cover of this book in Waterstones that there is now a television series based on it. So a circle then, because I first heard parts of it on the radio before reading the book. OK. I’m impressed, it’s good -but. Here it is a personal but. I have no idea at all why people of my age have nostalgia for the society of our childhood. Here we have it – gay women terrified of being found out; straight women having messed up abortions because they’re illegal; men being put in prison for being gay; men being put in prison for attempting suicide – can you believe. And in The Night Watch it’s a few years before that and men are in prison for being conscientious objectors. And young men are risking their lives to drop bombs on other human beings. To blow them into pieces. To burn cities. The good old days. The book begins in the post-war year of my birth and works backwards. The tragedy of these people is that their high point was ‘The War’ when there was purpose and everything since is pointless – like older people’s view of modern Britain. This book is demonstrably well researched and each little depressing nuance of 40s English life has a well-sinewed clarity. And the portrayal of London under the bombs is better than anything I have read. As Viv says “We might all be dead tomorrow", so life has point, at least today. Against all this miserable background there are of course Sarah Waters tortured characters’ demonstrating the futility of love and the certainty of betrayal. I didn’t enjoy this book.

Thanks to Terri, I am reading this excellent book!