In war, those waiting at home lose loved ones through death on the battle field; those on the battlefield lose them through removals and displacements back home so that when they come back there is no one there.
Lena, Anton and Rudolph are three Austrians whose life stories intersect against the background of the period prior to, during and after World War 1. After the war Anton, a journalist and author, takes a commission to write about the Schloss Seeblick, a sanatorium and psychiatric treatment clinic in Carinthia where Lena is an employee. Rudolph is a lawyer/activist in Vienna with whom Lena is involved at various times.
This is a long, complicated book with Sebastian Faulks’s usual vividly descriptive prose in different sections, from the beginnings of the Panama Canal to the battlefields of World War 1 to the architecture and lifestyles of Vienna. It is primarily concerned with the psychological effects their separate experiences have had on the lives of Anton and Lena.
It was a book I was always eager to get back to but at the same time it took me quite a long time to read. I think I read several pages twice and more. I sometimes wish Sebastian Faulks would make his endings clearer but this one had a most satisfactory conclusion.
Published by Penguin Books Australia
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