Reviews

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys

paigejohns's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

snoakes7001's review against another edition

5.0

This is a beautifully written elegant story. When I bought it, I thought it was simply about a captured soldier during WWII, but it's much more than that. It revolves around the lives of James (the soldier and the birdman), his new wife and his sister, both during and after the war. The conflict affects them all in different ways and it is how they all cope in the aftermath that is the most affecting - perhaps because many "war" novels end at the end of hostilities. Recommended if you like novels set in WWII, intelligent relationship tales and particularly nature writing. Or just a damn good story ;o)

northerly_heart_reads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

readingwiththechoob's review against another edition

4.0

I read this book without reading the synopsis and was initially disappointed to be reading yet another war/historic fiction. However, I was surprised at it. Many parts I found too descriptive and rather slow - the novel was highly character-driven, which isn’t my usual cup of tea. I did find the characters’ stories realistic and impactful, and enjoyed knowing what happened to them after the war. Though set during the Second World War, it felt rather current - Humphreys strategically places the reader at a somewhat bird’s eye view of each character. Humphreys succeeds in depicting the effects of war on humanity, and the latter‘s relationship to the natural world.

lilliangretsinger's review against another edition

3.0

This book was not what I thought it was going to be - there were zigs and zags throughout - and I am not sure if I like how it ended - because it didn't really end.

mactammonty's review against another edition

3.0

The characters did not feel fleshed out as well as they could have been. The story was interesting but not all absorbing.

sawyerbell's review against another edition

4.0

Quiet, sad and, in places, beautiful.

mamasquirrel's review against another edition

4.0

Another lovely accomplishment by Humpheys. She has become one of my top five fiction authors.

northernatlas's review against another edition

4.0

This story begins focused on an RAF cadet who, on his first mission in the Second World War, is shot down and detained in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. Fascinated with the natural world, and determined to stay alive and wait out the war, he begins a deep study of a nesting pair of redstart birds, just past the fence of the compound, visible from the safest distance he can be stationed at the perimeter. Humphreys' sparse, observational prose is perfectly suited for a story set during the war, a story encompassing the small cast of characters our ostensible protagonist introduces to us, by virtue of his existence. The story does not focus solely on James Hunter, but seamlessly spreads back to the lives of women at home, working in London and in rural Dorset, holding down the fort in the absence of so many men. Humphreys shifts and swirls between this small cast, bleeding the settings of obscured Germany, and of rural England, together. Similarities seep into one another, both of characters and the physical spaces they occupy, observe, and obsess over. Recommended for anyone interested in a simple, yet penetrating, style of prose, which makes a deep examination of the human condition.

knitter22's review against another edition

4.0

I've just finished The Evening Chorus and it is exquisite. It's a quiet but commanding book about how three people, a man, his wife, and his sister, deal with life during WWII in England and afterward. James Hunter has been captured and sent to a German POW camp. He studies a pair of redstarts nesting just beyond the camp’s perimeter, and this attracts the attention of the camp’s kommandant. There is a frightening misunderstanding, but their mutual appreciation for the natural world forms an unlikely and lasting bond between the men. James' wife, Rose, seems to misunderstand James' letters about birds and their habits, but finds the emotional solace she seeks with her two dogs and another man. James’s sister, Enid, comes to live with Rose after her married lover dies when her London flat was bombed.

Humphreys writes simply and beautifully about love and loss, but at its heart, this is really a story about the constancy of nature during a time of unspeakable human ruin. I'm tempted to re-read it immediately but want to just sit with it for a while.

“You can't undo actions with words.”