Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Author: Sebastian Faulks

Published: 1993
Novel.

The story begins in Amiens, northern France in 1910. A young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford is on attachment from London, working in the textile industry and lodging with the Azaire family. René Azaire runs a large factory when Stephen works; his second wife Isabelle is a woman of unfulfilled hopes, ill-treated by her husband. In the stultifying atmosphere of their town house, Stephen develops a passion for Isabelle. At first, she resists; but this only intensifies his feeling, which she soon begins to share. 

In 1916, in Flanders, Stephen is an infantry officer on the Western Front. He is frindly with Michael Weir, an engineer, whose men dig tunnels under No Man's Land to undermine the enemy. 

Stephen is a man almost broken by love and by war, but full of a passionate perversity. While some soldiers are happy to die, unable to comprehend what they have seen; Stephen becomes more and more determined to survive. 

Characters:
Stephen Wraysford
René Azaire
Isabelle Azaire (Madame Azaire)
Lisette
Jack Firebrace
Captain Weir
Jeanne Fourmentier
Elizabeth Benson
Françoise
Irene
Bob