This was my second time reading Birdsong, and I still feel it is a amazing and emotionally involved novel. Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong tells the story of Stephen, starting in before WWI France and taking him right through the war which is a terrible period of history. I believe the writer (Sebastian Faulks) creates a moving, shocking character and stories- Stephen and his love affair, the hardships of trench life which makes me see and feel all this shocking description through the character’ eyes. At same time, this book records the great war as a hugely important reminder of the near past, of the sacrifices that were made by our very close ancestors to preserve our way of life. I learned a lot from this book and found it to be both illuminating and horrifying. I found it astonishing that the soldiers of …show more content…
I have to admit I had very little knowledge of WWI before I read this book, except for the bare minimum of how it started and how a great many young men died in the war. I also don 't normally read books with many battle scenes and with war as the main theme, but once I started reading the story of the war, I just couldn 't put it down until I reached the last page. What moved me most was the detailed description of the tension in the anticipation of the attacks (i.e., Battle of the Somme), the horror of being trapped in tunnels thirty feet underground in no man 's land, and the psychological effect of the sheer brutality of the war on the soldiers, which was unimaginable and destructive to say the least. The last chapter about the war was this truly remarkable story of endurance, bravery, survival and humanity that makes me admire the talent of writer. I also found the parts about tunnel digging very interesting to read as well. The descriptions of how both sides dug tunnels underground and laid mines under enemy lines was something that gives me a good insight into of how part of the war was fought on both