I've read Pat Barker before, and her books tend to be, like this one, a bit...remote? I can't quite put it into words--they are intriguing, but there is a slight chill about them, I don't always quite connect to the characters. But in this case, some are real people, and I think she did an admirable job making them believable. I actually wished that Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen had figured more prominently. For a story about WWI soldiers that takes place far from any battlefield it is every bit as effective in conveying the horrors. I compare this to books I've read in the last couple of years that I would have completely forgotten had I not logged them on Goodreads, and I won't be forgetting this any time soon. It certainly creeps under the skin.