This book is written from the viewpoint of a soldier on the front lines. It doesn't hold back on the descriptions of what it is like and does not make for easy reading. I can quite imagine that life on the front line was exactly like this, the mud, the bad food, the way you have to distance yourself from some of the events that are going on. I also found it disturbing that although they were out fighting for their country in the worst possible conditions they did not seem to get told any news of the war itself and how things are progressing and whats going on elsewhere. I felt for him when he goes through his feelings of having to kill someone and realising that actually they are person too. You get filtered information at school about what conditions were like but it is only ever touched on before heading off to another aspect of the war. I could not say I liked this book, but I am so glad I have read it, it has been a real eye opener.

Sending this on a RABCK

All safe and sound :)

Thanks very much Abi-Gibby.

I read this in early 2008 (I don't normally revisit books as there are so many out there) but as it was chosen as our book club choice and I enjoyed it the first time round I thought why not.

I'm still thinking about the book to send you in exchange but I'll send it before the week is out.

Thank you.

Second time of reading and I enjoyed it all the same, a very good story and an interesting account of WWI from a German solider on the front line. They were just kids and they didn't really know the reasons for fighting but their struggles and anguish throughout the story are so real - it's a book I'd recommend to anyone who is interested in history and wartime.

I've given this to KT-J to read again (we'll be discussing the book in more detail at our July book club meeting), then we'll find a suitable method of release either controlled or wild so that this book can continue it's journey.

I read this a long time ago so it was good to read it again for our bookclub meeting (although it's taken me a long time to get round to journalling it!).

It's an interesting book to read as it's written from the German perspective and I don't think people always remember that the soldiers fighting for the German side experienced the same as the soldiers fighting for the Allies, and that makes it a sad book to read as well as you know that the young men who fought lost friends, loved ones and didn't necessarily want to be embroiled in what they were but had to follow orders regardless. This is a very personally written book and shows the real human side of a terrible conflict. Haunting but well worth reading.

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Added to the random UK book box. I wonder who will pick this?

Picked this out of Stubee's Random Bookbox.

I promised myself I wasn't going to pick up any more 1001 Books but just couldn't resist. :)

I can't say I enjoyed this book due to the subject matter. However, it did hold my attention throughout and it was brief and to the point, it didn't drag on as some 1001 books do.

These sentences from the last chapter were the most poignant at describing what he'd been through and what was to come.

"Had we returned home in 1916, out of the suffering and the strength of our experiences we might have unleashed a storm. Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more." (p.190)

"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear." (p.191)

Travelling in Cfreckle's BBC Big Read (top 200) List Bookbox.

Plucked from the book box. Watched the film many a year ago- think it was back when I was at school! I’ll probably appreciate it a lot more now

There wasn’t a page of this that didn’t move me. Written with such insight to rival the war poets, the characters are raw and funny and tragic. How quickly the young men age when there are barely months between the new recruits. It is a horror story where pain and suffering are inflicted on what are essentially vulnerable people on both sides, and the language of death isn’t shied from. A classic story in the truest sense

Int the mixed fiction book 📦

Round 1 of the box has returned to me.

Releasing in a Little Free Library