FIELD SERVICE

With his trademark unerring precision and lacerating honesty, Robert Edric explores the emotional hinterland which lies behind the work done by the War Graves Commission in the wake of the First World War.

Morlancourt, Northern France, 1920. In the aftermath of the bloodiest conflict the world has ever seen, a small contingent of battle-worn soldiers remains in Northern France. Captain James Reid and his compatriots are tasked with the identification and burial of innumerable corpses as they assimilate the events of the past four years.

The stark contrast between the realities of burying men in France and the reports of honouring the dead back in Britain is all too clear. But it is only when the daily routine is interrupted by a visit from two women, both seeking solace from their grief, that the men are forced to acknowledge the part they too have played.

Robert Edric is one of the most critically admired novelists of his generation. The author of over a dozen novels, his awards include the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the WH Smith Literary Award and he has twice been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Peacetime and Gathering the Water. In Zodiac Light was shortlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He lives in Yorkshire.