Black Lace Quickies 8

Winner of the Booker Prize for her First World War novel The Ghost Road, Pat Barker returns to the subject of conflict in this latest novel. This time she investigates the long-term effects of war on those who have been involved. Her hero, Stephen Sharkey, used to travel the world as a war reporter, until, devastated by the assassination of his friend and colleague, photographer Ben Frobisher, he quit the profession for good. Sharkey heads for a remote cottage somewhere in north-east England where he can collect his thoughts and begin work on his book, a study of how war is represented and the moral issues involved. He contacts Ben's widow, Kate, to arrange access to Ben's files, but before long his hopes of enjoying a period of peace and quiet to write begin to evaporate. Kate is recovering from a car accident and has taken on a young man to help with her sculpture. Peter Wingrave, ostensibly charming and helpful, has an aura of mystery about him. There are secrets in his past known only to Alec Braithewaite, the local vicar, and he is saying nothing. Almost against his better judgement, Sharkey finds himself drawn to the beautiful Justine, Alec's daughter, an ebullient teenager 20 years younger than himself. Before long, what begins as a passionate physical affair develops into something more serious, and Sharkey finds himself becoming embroiled in the turmoil of the people around him - their grief and their terror, their pain and their bitterness. His escape from the war-torn regions of the world has merely forced him to confront the carnage of other people's daily lives - and this time he cannot run away. And always the memories of Ben's death, the dreadful experiences of that last mission in Afghanistan and the horror they encountered in a filthy attic in Sarajevo come crowding back. What is the responsibility of the war photographer and the reporter, when they are faced with the brutality of war - should they remain detached and do their job, or become involved, whatever the cost? This is the question which continues to torment Sharkey as the barriers he has tried to erect round himself are gradually broken down - by Justine, by his nephew Adam, by Kate. Damaged by his experiences and by the loss of his dearest friend, he learns to open his heart to the people who care most deeply for him. Barker's book is an astonishing insight into the contorted, complex mind of a man who has seen too much and yet shared too little. War has scarred Stephen Sharkey for life, yet it is these very experiences which enable him to turn outwards towards the world and finally accept that he cannot operate in isolation - the sheer humanity of those he has come to love encroaches too much upon his solitude. (Kirkus UK)