War's Ashes

Going back sixty or so years, the author of these hard-hitting stories of conflict, disillusionment and redemption puts war firmly in our sights, not only as a long-distance backdrop but also as a malign guide to people's destinies. 'Sarah's Story' takes us to the Sussex Weald in England, where a teenage girl, back home from New York, falls in love with a handsome stranger in flying uniform. His elusive nature upsets her, and she upsets the community. How soon will she know the truth that everyone else seems party to-that he is one of 'the Others'? 'Gone' takes us on a hike to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina-a real log-cabin America, still primitive in the 1940s. The personal calvary of the hero, a young man of Quaker origins, makes him by stages a coward, a hero, and a sacrifice. Vividly described, the raw mountain scenery and the inner turmoil of Kirk Fuller remain long in the reader's mind. 'Winter Star' again uses our ironic knowledge to underpin the plight of a young woman on her own, on the edge of the sea, and on the brink of crisis. Again, war drums sound in the distance, driving two disparate characters together to face a Providence that delivers tough justice and the promise of survival. And here may lie the real message of this finely wrought trilogy: though war makes fools of us, many of us come back to tell the tale.