Birdsong (novel)

Birdsong is a novel by Sebastian Faulks, published by Vintage in 1993. It tells of a man at different stages during World War I.

The first stage is set before the war in Amiens, France where Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman working in Paris conducts a passionate affair with Isabelle, the wife of his host, Azaire. We rejoin him some years later as a Lieutenant in the British army and through his eyes, Faulks tells an incredibly vivid and moving story of the Battle of the Somme. During his time in the trenches, we learn of Wraysford's mental attitude to the war and the guarded comradeship he feels for his friend Captain Michael Weir and the rest of his men. His story is parralleled with that of Jack Firebrace, a former miner, employed in the British trenches to listen for and plant mines under the German trenches. The novel ends with Wraysford and Firebrace being trapped underground as the war ends and being rescued by Levi, a German soldier.

Alongside the main story, there is the inquisitive narrative of Wraysford's granddaugter, Elizabeth who unearths the stories of WW1 and the remaining links to Wraysford's experiences.

Birdsong has often been named Sebastian Faulks' best work of fiction. His literary retelling of the events and attitudes towards the Battle of the Somme and life in the trenches is highly acclaimed and is often grouped with work from writers such as Erich Maria Remarque and Ernest Hemingway as a modern contrast to WW1 literature.

Other Works

Other texts by Sebastian Faulks include

• Charlotte Gray
• The Girl at the Lion d'Or
• On Green Dolphin Street
• The Fatal Englishman