The last book in the Regeneration trilogy and winner of the Booker Prize.

"The Ghost Road" is the culminating masterpiece of Pat Barker's towering World War I fiction trilogy. The time of the novel is the closing months of the most senselessly savage of modern conflicts. In France, millions of men engaged in brutal trench warfare are all "ghosts in the making." In England, psychologist William Rivers, with severe pangs of conscience, treats the mental casualties of the war to make them whole enough to fight again. One of these, Billy Prior, risen to the officer class from the working class, both courageous and sardonic, decides to return to France with his fellow officer, poet Wilfred Owen, to fight a war he no longer believes in. Meanwhile, Rivers, enfevered by influenza, returns in memory to his experience studying a South Pacific tribe whose ethos amounted to a culture of death. Across the gulf between his society and theirs, Rivers begins to form connections that cast new light on his--and our--understanding of war.
Combining poetic intensity with gritty realism, blending biting humor with tragic drama, moving toward a denouement as inevitable as it is devastating, "The Ghost Road" both encapsulates history and transcends it. It is a modern masterpiece.

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A brilliant end to a great trilogy. I love the whole trilogy. It is definitely a trilogy one needs to mull over and think.

On its way to penelopewanders. Enjoy!

This and the previous book in the trilogy have arrived safely in France after a very long journey. They arrive with lovely bookcrossing book plates (and a nice card)- thank you so much for the books and the swag!
I am embarrassed to note that I don't remember if these are here as a ring (spiral), ray or RABCK... please let me know.
Thanks so much for sending, hoping you are well and that this springtime is a happy and healthy time for you and yours.

This is the third in the Regeneration Trilogy, and Barker's storytelling skills remain strong and convincing. Although this is the third and last, it seems to me Rivers' story is not really complete. This part of the trilogy mainly switches between Billy Prior's story and Rivers'.
At the end I could only say that WWI was such a miserable, awful war, that there was no way the book could be anything other than sad to devastating.
The stories about WWII seem to lend themselves to much more of a certain optimism in humankind - the resistance, the heroes, the small acts of defiance and support... but here it seems like one Forlorn Hope after the next.
Inevitably, reading about WWI with the senseless deaths, the lingering after effects caused by gas and the dire horror of the trenches, makes me feel such hopelessness.
Most of the characters followed in the book are already outcasts in their society without the war, but to the extent that they survive, they are forever marginalized by their experiences.
The reflections on trauma, sanity and lack thereof, and culture were all very thought provoking as well.
I am so grateful to bookcrossing for having led me to discover these books.

This travels to the USA from France with the second, thanks to this spiral set up by mcscar. Enjoy!
Currently as follows:

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

Thanks again for sharing this trilogy! All three books are safely with me and I will get to them soon!

The conclusion of Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy. Yet more with the cynical Prior... and also Dr. Rivers, mostly recalling when he was visiting Melanesia (Fiji?), as a different approach to "ghosts". Sassoon is MIA here, however. I would say the first book, 'Regeneration' is the most important. It's so good you don't even realize the book never sets foot in the trenches, and keeps to the military hospital. The third book actually does go into the war, but I can't see that it improves upon the first book. The first book is so good at visiting the psychological effects of battle and with the third, it's sometimes too busy being within it. It's almost like the first book should have been the last to really hit home, or at least feel like the other two books were leading somewhere. The second book 'The Eye in the Door' might even be better than this one. However, I do not at all regret reading all three books. 
*Book #130 I have read of the '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'

Thanks again for sharing these books! They will be in the mail to Hanacarp ON MONDAY. Again, so extremely sorry for the wait!

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