| "She got an atlas in the reference section of the library and sought out Burma. In the poky little room above the fire station in the Council yard, she stared at the name and tried to imagine what it was like to be there..." (from the first line) When Sam Richardson returns in 1946 from the "Forgotten War" in Burma to his home in England, he finds the war has changed him and his family. As they strive to adjust, the bonds of love and loyalty are stretched to the breaking point in this taut and profoundly moving novel.
Annotation:
This novel by the celebrated English writer Melvyn Bragg explores a situation common to many returning soldiers. In 1946, Sam Richardson, a veteran of the war in Burma, makes his way home to Wigton and to his newly confident and independent wife, Ellen and a son who has no memory of who Sam is. Sam soon finds himself plagued by his memories of the horrors of the past, and alienated from the people in the present, who can't comprehend what he has been through and seem to have gotten along perfectly well without him.
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