Book description
In
Toby's Room
, Pat Barker revisits the First World War and the characters
introduced in Life Class
When Toby is reported 'Missing, Believed Killed', another secret
casts a lengthening shadow over Elinor's world: how exactly did Toby
die - and why? Elinor determines to uncover the truth. Only then can
she finally close the door to Toby's room. Moving from the Slade
School of Art to Queen Mary's Hospital, where surgery and art
intersect in the rebuilding of the shattered faces of the wounded,
Toby's Room is a riveting drama of identity, damage, intimacy
and loss. Toby's Room is Pat Barker's most powerful novel yet.
'Heart-rendering return to the Great War . . . On every level,
Toby's Room anatomises a world where extreme emotion shatters
the boundaries of identity, behaviour, gender. Through the mask of
Apollo bursts an omnipresent Dionysus' Independent
'Once again Barker skilfully moves between past and present,
seamlessly weaving fact and fiction into a gripping narrative'
Sunday Telegraph
'A gripping and moving exploration of the lasting effects of war'
Woman & Home
'A natural storyteller . . . the reader [will be] torn between
wanting to linger over the sheer pleasure of the writing and the
desire to rush towards the end to discover how it all pans out'
Daily Mail
Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed
Regeneration trilogy, comprising Regeneration, which
has been filmed, The Eye in the Door, which won the Guardian
Fiction Prize, and The Ghost Road, which won the Booker Prize.
The trilogy featured in the Observer's 2012 list of the ten
best historical novels. She is also the author of the more recent
novels Another World, Border Crossing, Double
Vision, Life Class, and Toby's Room. She lives in Durham.
Pat Barker
was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed
Regeneration
trilogy, comprising
Regeneration
(1991); which was made into a film of the same name;
The Eye in the Door
(1993), which won the
Guardian
Fiction Prize; and
The Ghost Road
(1995), which won the Booker Prize, as well as the more recent novels
Another World
,
Border Crossing, Double Vision
and
Life Class.
She lives in Durham.
