Hardcover: 512 pages- Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (31 Oct. 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1471186393
- ISBN-13: 978-1471186394
Synopsis
1921. Families are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. While many survivors of the Great War have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband Francis has not come home. He is considered ‘missing in action’, but when Edie receives a mysterious photograph taken by Francis in the post, hope flares. And so she beings to search.
Harry, Francis’s brother, fought alongside him. He too longs for Francis to be alive, so they can forgive each other for the last things they ever said. Both brothers shared a love of photography and it is that which brings Harry back to the Western Front. Hired by grieving families to photograph gravesites, as he travels through battle-scarred France gathering news for British wives and mothers, Harry also searches for evidence of his brother.
And as Harry and Edie’s paths converge, they get closer to a startling truth.
An incredibly moving account of an often-forgotten moment in history, The Photographer of the Lost tells the story of the thousands of soldiers who were lost amid the chaos and ruins, and the even greater number of men and women desperate to find them again.
Review
The Photographer of the Lost is the brilliant debut novel from Caroline Scott. Set three years after the end of the First World War, Harry has the job of travelling back to France, to photograph the graves, and last known places of those soldiers who have died or gone missing in action. As he travels to the old battlefields, trenches and cemeteries Harry looks back at his own time in these places, the horror of the war, the battles and the dreadful conditions they fought in. Harry is also on a personal journey to find out what happened to his brother Francis, missing in action, presumed dead. Edie was married to Francis and after receiving a photograph of him believes he could still be alive. Edie joins Harry on this journey through the war torn villages and towns of France. This is a story of love, loss, remembrance, hope and forbidden love.
The Photographer of the Lost is such a beautiful book to read in prose and story line, and I have found it hard to find the words to describe just how stunning this book is to read. We have all read books about the First World War, the terrible conditions endured by the soldiers and the millions killed and registered as missing, but this book looks at the legacy of this war, for those left behind, family and survivors, and the effect it had on the landscape of France. There is the story of the widows who went to France to try and find what happened to their husbands, to to visit their graves and to search through lost property for any clues. What touched me the most was the portraits, drawn or photographed, of the lost and of themselves in the hope that someone will recognise them. These pictures were pinned in cafes, town halls and at the lost and found; I found this heartbreaking. Then there is Harry’s personal story, one of three brothers who went to fight, but he was the only known survivor. He looks back at his time in the War, the relationship with his brothers and other soldiers, and the atrocities the occurred. There is also the story of his love for Edie, his sister-in-law, a forbidden love but one that still burns brightly.
Harry is man conflicted with so much emotion, the guilt at being the only surviving brother, and for Francis being dead and not him. There are his feelings for Edie, a beacon of hope in his life who he knows he shouldn’t have feelings for. He also has the job of photographing graves and battle sites for those families who can’t visit them personally but need to know where their loved ones are buried, or the last place they were seen. After living through the war, it must take someone special to be do this. Edie loves her husband and can’t rest until she knows for sure he is dead, rather than missing in action. She is compromised in her feelings for Harry whom she has always been close to. Her dogged approach symbolises that of many wives, sisters, mothers, aunts left behind in England not knowing for sure what happens to their loved ones, but no being able to move forward until they know for sure.
The Photographer of the Lost is an outstanding debut novel from Caroline Scott. She writes with such passion and understanding, empathy and compassion that rise from the page and into the reader. This really is one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time, and one that I will never forget reading. The legacy of the war on those left behind, the ruin of so many French towns and villages, and the continued search for the missing, gave me a lot to think about; just because a war has been declared a victory doesn’t mean that is the end; the effects will ripple for decades and centuries to come. In modern literature Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks as a classic about World War I but Caroline Scott’sThe Photographer of the Lost will certainly be looked at in the same light (in my opinion). This may not be released until October but pre order yourself a copy, you won’t regret it. Stunning, beautiful, poignant, powerful are just a few words to describe this book.
I would like to thank Anne Cater and Simon & Schuster for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for this amazing book.
I hope you enjoyed my review and please share across social media and give me a follow.
