The Ghost Road, winner of the Booker Prize in 1995, is the final in a trilogy exploring the impact of World War One, particularly shell shock, on soldiers. I have not read the first two books and while this can be read as a stand-alone I could at times sense that I was missing out by not having the background and knowledge from the former books. This book focuses on two main characters. Billy Prior is a bisexual, working class officer who has recovered from shell shock, and volunteers to return to France rather than take a desk job out of a sense of loyalty to the men fighting there. Dr William Rivers, an actual person, is a psychiatrist who treats soldiers with shell shock. Before this he was an anthropologist/ethnologist who spent time on the Solomon Islands. When he suffers from the Spanish Flu, memories from the Solomons dominate his mind.

Barker’s effectiveness in depicting the horrific realities of warfare, her compassionate but accurate portrayal of shell shock, plus the callous way it was disregarded by some make this a harrowing read. Among the other things that stood out for me are the way Barker highlighted the class divide. Prior was especially conscious of and resentful towards it. She also does an excellent job combining the actual with the fictional, for instance the friendship between the real life war poet Wilfred Owen and the fictional Billy Prior. I think the biggest standout was the parallels, comparisons and contrasts that could be drawn between some aspects of Melanesian society and what occurred during World War One. This is a unique approach to critiquing British society’s attitude to warfare and makes The Ghost Road a worthy read.

This may not be my favourite Booker winning book by a woman, but it is undeniably well-written and thought provoking. 

This one is difficult to review because, while I didn't enjoy it necessarily, I found it compulsively readable and I think it will be one that will remain with me for a while. Telling the story from the perspectives of both Rivers (real historical person) and Prior (Barker's creation) gave an interesting blend of reality and fiction. although I enjoyed the perspectives of these two men, I found the secondary characters extremely hard to keep track of, with similar names and barely any physical description provided. which I guess was probably a lot of The Point, in terms of the anonymity and loss of individuality in war, as Prior ruminates on towards the end of the novel.
I haven't read the previous two books in the trilogy. I picked this one up after watching the film Benediction about Siegfried Sassoon, and finding out that Pat Barker had written a novel in which he is one of the main characters. I saw this one in the bookshop a few days later and thought they were the same, but the one I wanted was Regeneration, the first in the trilogy. I still want to read that--I think Barker's version of Craiglockhart and the psychological impact of war would be very interesting. 
Overall, I feel that this book, for me, could be anywhere from a 2 to a 5 star book, depending on how I'm feeling. I didn't love it, but I felt genuinely emotional throughout, especially in parts 2 and 3. Certainly one that will stick with me, especially if I'm reading or watching anything related to WW1.