Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland, 1917, where army psychiatrist William Rivers is treating shell-shocked soldiers. Under his care are the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, as well as mute Billy Prior, who is only able to communicate by means of pencil and paper. Rivers’s job is to make the men in his charge healthy enough to fight. Yet the closer he gets to mending his patients’ minds the harder becomes every decision to send them back to the horrors of the front …

Regeneration is the classic exploration of how the traumas of war brutalised a generation of young men.

The first book in the Regeneration trilogy

The book's hoping to hitch-hike from Finnish Un-Con 2015 to a new reader!

Thank you :)

Awesome. I can only admire Barker's ability to write of such a difficult and dreadful subject. Dreadful being the reasons why soldiers were in Craiglockhart War Hospital. I found a whole new dimension to the book bumping accidentally to a poem by Wilfred Owens as a quote in a (non-fiction) book explaining the first world war from historical point of view.

This book puts a reader to a platform to witness insanity of the first world war from the point of view of a commander and a soldier. Not an easy read, not pleasant subject but very important read. As my historian boyfriend shortly put it: the men had no chance as the offence equipment of warfare were devastatingly outdated, and the defence equipment of warfare were up to date and the result is the dreadful amount of perished men completely in vain.

By this book a reader is offered a way to experience the world by a shell-shocked commander/soldier and to realize what kind of men came home after the war. And were parenting the generation seeing the second world war. It's crazy but it should be seen. Cause and effect.

I don't know whom to recommend this because war is a subject I doubt many wants to read. It's worth of read if bothered. For a historian as I am the book was by no means boring.

To Soozreader :)

Thank you!:)

I thought this was an extremely well-written book on an extremely difficult topic. Men with injuries that cannot necessarily be seen from the outside must be patched well enough (or for long enough) for them to be able to go back to the horrendous battlefield. And if they are still not able to go back, they are left behind feeling guilty and probably condemned by the surrounding society as well.

This book is on its way to the next reader. Happy reading!

This has arrived safely in France, thanks so much!

At what point does the recent past become history? I can't help feeling that WWI is still the recent past, although we're talking over a century ago. Perhaps it's because many issues were first addressed as part of the WWI experience, notably PTSD, it still feels very relevant to me.
As per usual, I had done no real research on this before turning the first page, so the postcard of WWI soldiers accompanying the book began lifting the veil (thanks for the card, Soozreader, by the way).
I initially wondered if the choice of the main character's name was coincidence, but quickly realized that choosing Siegfried Sassoon, who I knew as a poet who specifically bared the brutal face of WWI and the experience of trench warfare, could be no haphazard choice. And then I realized it was indeed a fairly accurate accounting of part of Sassoon's life. I did google Sassoon to see just how much liberty Barker had taken with his life, and it seems that the biographical skeleton was well-respected. Obviously it was for the novelist to flesh out the discussions, conversations and emotions.
Despite its compact aspect, this is a dense story, touching on many important issues - pacificism, cowardice, nationalism, class, science, medecine, psychology, psychoanalysis, as well as gender identy and sexual orientation - to name but a few.
The characters felt very real and their convictions and doubts were moving.
I should be receiving the two other books in this trilogy, and very much look forward to reading those too.
I don't know if this needs to travel on, but it's a book well-worth reading.

I dropped this off on my way out of town for a three week trip. It was easier than transporting it in my luggage. I‘m now reading the second in this trilogy and although the first does not require a sequel, the continuation is worth the read. This now travels to the USA. Enjoy.
Thanks for making this available, soozreader.
It looks like this goes to hanacarp after bookbirds.

Bookbirds (USA) USA only--> on its way
Hanacarp (USA) can send int'l

This has arrived! Thanks so much everyone for sharing and penelopewanders for sending. I will journal again when I'm finished... though I'm not sure who is next in line after me...

I'm finally getting around to reading this trilogy -- I'm so sorry for the wait.

Wow - Pat Barker somehow really seems to delve into the psychology of soldiers during World War I. Not like I would specifically know that area, but she occasionally twists things in interesting ways. Like a soldier with amnesia using hypnosis to figure out a forgotten few days that led to his breakdown, only to be upset that what is revealed isn't AS BAD as he expected: "That's all?!!?" But the switching perspectives both from patients and the doctor, keeps moving the pace along. There is a lot of gentle humor here which cuts through such a tough nightmarish subject. The setting is a mental institution, but not the place for the severe patients. It isn't sappy like you'd think most War books COULD be -- it ticks right along, it's honest. And for good or ill, some of these characters are based on real people. Of course none of these kids who survived the trenches were actually insane -- their situation was insane. An impossible situation. Getting to book #2 soon!

*Book #129 I have read of the '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'

Finally went in the mail today to Hanacarp! Again, thanks for sharing and so sorry for the wait.

received from bookbirds just before christmas '22, and cannot wait to read the whole trilogy. thank you <3