I must admit that I didn’t engage with this book at the beginning but when I saw a review from another reader saying that it was their contender for their Book of the Year, I decided I must persevere. I’m so glad I did.
This is an epic novel telling the story of two men, Drum and Carter, who are from different social, economic and political classes but bond during their two years of National Service in the Cold War era. A mighty tome - over 500 pages long -which describes 60 years of social history in the U.K. in wonderful poetic prose.
Stuart Evers captures brilliantly the threat of nuclear war that blighted the lives of those living in the 1960s and how it affected families for years afterwards just as Islamic terrorism does today. This book is a masterpiece but may be too Britain-focused to receive the international recognition it deserves. The book I read was published by Picador in 2020 so it seems that it has been republished in 2021 in the hope that it will reach the wider reading public.
This is an epic novel telling the story of two men, Drum and Carter, who are from different social, economic and political classes but bond during their two years of National Service in the Cold War era. A mighty tome - over 500 pages long -which describes 60 years of social history in the U.K. in wonderful poetic prose.
Stuart Evers captures brilliantly the threat of nuclear war that blighted the lives of those living in the 1960s and how it affected families for years afterwards just as Islamic terrorism does today. This book is a masterpiece but may be too Britain-focused to receive the international recognition it deserves. The book I read was published by Picador in 2020 so it seems that it has been republished in 2021 in the hope that it will reach the wider reading public.