by Pat Barker (Get the Book)Barker is firmly established in the realm of historical fiction due to her much-celebrated Regeneration Trilogy about Britain during WWI (Regeneration, 1991; The Eye in the Door, 1994; The Ghost Road, 1995). Although her latest novel is not in a trilogy, it does share with her recent Life Class (2008) a London art-academy setting. Again, it's wartime. The carnage in Flanders fields is graphically brought to the home front in the ravaged literally faces of returned soldiers. Art student Elinor Brooke's relationship with her brother, Toby, goes beyond usually accepted norms. When Toby is killed in battle, Elinor is obsessed with learning the details of his death. This obsession leads her on a long physical and mental journey, with the reader following along in rapt attention. As always, Barker constructs easily consumed sentences, each contributing to the sturdy, compelling story line, and although Elinor's obsession could have easily grown wearying, Barker's sympathetic treatment prevents the reader from reaching that point. --Booklist
