Another review here mentions how you can see the author's "workings" as she constructed the story, and that's how I felt also. The lives of two very different couples are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war. Only eighteen at the outbreak of the war, Nadine and Riley want to make promises to each other—but how can they when their future is out of their hands?

The explicit theme of the book is the effect that the First World War had on people’s lives – not just those who fought but those left behind – all of the characters lives are turned upside down, all have faced horrors and all have to face a world where “it” is “over” and they have to rebuild their lives knowing they are forever affected and having to choose (as a poetic piece at the end of the story sets out) whether to allow the horror to overwhelm them/continue to try to shut it out or whether to accept it and move on through a healing process. In a fit of fury and boyish pride, Riley enlists in the army and finds himself involved in the transformative nightmare of the twentieth century.This allowed bad news to travel swiftly back to England without having to go through the censors, but also restricted the men to using an emotionless tick box system. The work of the Doctors in facial reconstruction is deliberately described in detail as the book is largely a tribute to them (through family links of the authors) and this lends the book an unusual dimension (and unlike say in many books by Ian McEwan the detail given is not superfluous/pretentiously relayed but crucial to the book and described with insight and feeling via the passion of nurse Rose).

I could completely empathize with Riley Purefoy, the protagonist, and I understand why he made the choices he did. Of all these areas I found the reconstructive surgery passages the most interesting and informative. From everything I have read, World War I was traumatic to all those who fought and for all those who were left behind.

They are the Romeo and Juliet of the story - star-crossed lovers who are torn apart by circumstances. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises – but how can they when the future is not in their hands? Peter is nice enough but less than interesting and his wife Julia is a vapid and tedious character on whom far too much time is wasted.

He's officer class through and through and is married to the appearance obsessed Julia whose only skill is her beauty. I thought the ending was well written, but will refrain from explaining why as not to ruin anything, I did find the last scenes interesting and even left me wanting a bit more, although I don’t know if it would have even been appropriate to go beyond the point the author did. What I liked about this was the candid way in which the class differences and prejudices were looked at, in a manner that was fresh and straightforward. Louisa Young does a wonderful job of making the characters immediately real and the reader is very quickly engaged in the story.You never really get to find out about what attracts both couples to each other, which I think would have been nice to know especially considering what happens to both couples throughout the book (I don't want to give anything away).

Is there something about the fact that no one is left alive to tell -- or criticize the veracity of -- the tale that has led to a recent flourishing (to the already robust genre) of trench literature, usually somehow connected to a story of the folks at home, maybe poets, maybe artsy? Clearly that couple were included to show a broader canvas of reactions to the war, but they didn't develop in any significant way or add much to the book. Riley's own awareness of trying to lift himself towards better things, and his family's reaction to this are all quite evocatively told. Ha la delicatezza di un romanzo romantico (in senso metastorico), la forza di un romanzo di denuncia, la disperazione delle storie che raccontano la verità, la voglia di vivere che infonde chi ha vissuto la morte. I didn't like this much mainly because I really didn't like a single character except Rose and she's really not a "main player.The first half of the book is about the experiences that the five have adapting to the realities of war and the shifts it brings about in their relationships. Sir Alfred, keen to support Riley in his quest to improve himself, invites him to live in his home, allows him access to his library and pays for his education. My dear I wanted to tell you is a 2011 novel by Lousia Young about young up-and-coming officer Riley Purefoy, the girl he loves, his CO, the girl he loves, and his cousin, whom nobody loves. At eighteen years old, working-class Riley Purefoy and “posh” Nadine Waveney have promised each other the future, but when war erupts across Europe, everything they hold to be true is thrown into question. It's a book that will stay with me for a long time and whose characters will live long in the memory.