A review by pturnbull
Wake by Anna Hope

4.0

It's difficult to read a novel in which three separate, non-connecting points of view are presented right from the start. None continues long enough for the reader to become comfortable with the character. At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book, but it didn't take long for me to want to follow to find out what would link three women in 1920, each mourning a loved one killed in WWI. The novel's form restricts the storytelling to five days running up to and including the delivery of an unknown warrior to London for burial. A fourth story describes the body's journey from its place in France's mud to its final resting place. I didn't enjoy this fourth narrative much, but I respected the need for it here as a requirement of the novel's structure. Each woman's grief-struck psychological journey resolves once the body itself is entombed.

There are many moments of truth described in the novel. Each woman is emotionally numb and each flirts with death and danger because they can't see the world as it is, they can't get past their longing for what and who will never return. It's an outstanding look at the aftermath of a war that
burned through all levels of British society.

As far as how heroism is presented here, it seems to me that the title says it all.