132,957
edits
Changes
A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks (view source)
Revision as of 07:58, 9 May 2018
, 07:58, 9 May 2018no edit summary
Geoffrey swaps a career as a public school master for an existence as an English officer behind German lines during WWII, an experience that will take a lifetime to expunge. Billy is a child sent to the workhouse to give his family a chance of survival. Elena has to come to terms with an adopted brother, Jeanne the French nursemaid lives in the shadow of a one-off encounter and Jack? He bears the indelible heart print of a girl who travels with a guitar. Five lives, five stories, one human, emotional thread.
English writer [[:Category:Sebastian Faulks|Sebastian Faulks]] has become a household name here as much for his radio panel game appearances and TV documentary work as for his novels. I first discovered him nearly 20 years ago through [[''Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks|Birdsong]]'', his first beautifully crafted and poetic novel which was a blessing and a curse. It spoilt a lot of people for his subsequent works as we (yes, me included) continue to look for another ''Birdsong'' in all he writes. I therefore picked up ''A Possible Life'' with nervous anticipation.
The book is divided into five parts, each part being built around a particular person. Not only are the people unconnected, they even exist in different moments in history so on first sight they're five short stories (more on that later). The sections aren't even headlined with dates but that's part of the joy as for some of the stories we need to fossick the narrative for clues before the historical give-aways kick in. We aren't kept waiting long though as Sebastian demonstrates his mastery of evoking time and place.