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.