We review book number two from the author of my book of the year in 2019. It’s standing in a mighty shadow, will When I Come Home Again hold its own?
When I Come Home – the blurb
They need him to remember. He wants to forget.
1918. In the last week of the First World War, a uniformed soldier is arrested in Durham Cathedral. When questioned, it becomes clear he has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there.
The soldier is given the name Adam and transferred to a rehabilitation home. His doctor James is determined to recover who this man once was. But Adam doesn’t want to remember. Unwilling to relive the trauma of war, Adam has locked his memory away, seemingly for good.
When a newspaper publishes a feature about Adam, three women come forward, each claiming that he is someone she lost in the war. But does he believe any of these women? Or is there another family out there waiting for him to come home?
Based on true events, When I Come Home Again is a deeply moving and powerful story of a nation’s outpouring of grief, and the search for hope in the aftermath of war.
Who is he?
When I Come Home Again begins with an interesting starting point – Everyone has heard of the unknown warrior, but who actually knows anything about the story behind him? Did you know that 6 bodies were first recovered from various places in France? One was then chosen at random and plonked in Westminster Abbey to much pomp and circumstance. Amongst Kings. Designed to represent, not just the men who never came home, but those who were never found after World War One. The warrior’s funeral was recorded and shown in cinemas across the country. His tomb visited by an estimated 1,250,000 in the week following his funeral.
Caroline Scott takes such a point and develops it, pokes at it and prods it. A soldier comes home and doesn’t remember who he is. Like the warrior, he too becomes a focal point for the relatives left behind. In a way Scott carries on from The Photographer of the Lost. France in the aftermath of the war is totally different to a soldier with amnesia, yet it is that desire, that NEED to know that is repeated. The women who come forward to claim Adam, so certain that he is theirs are just as determined as the women in The Photographer picking through spectacles and belt buckles in derelict French towns.
Bet you can’t guess the ending
There is then the way Caroline (I’m assuming familiarity here, apologies) spins a yarn. I don’t want to give anything away but I was convinced about two story twists. I actually turned the corner of the page over thinking ‘Ha, that’s it, that’s what it’s about.’ I was wrong on both points. The plot develops without the need for shocks at every chapter ending or Hollywood type reveals. It is genuinely suspenseful whilst being a really well written book. It has just such stunningly gorgeous prose, the colours, the agonies, the heartbreak, the grief. Yes, you may at times need a tissue.
The lilting song of a mistle thrush
You can’t read When I Come Home Again without being drawn to the nature writing amongst its pages. I am not a reader of nature books, I barely know an oak tree from a sycamore, however the great outdoors positively shone in this book. To the point I have (hesitantly) recommended it to my nature reader extraordinaire friend. Its beautiful descriptions made me wish I could draw curlews and grow courgettes.
What’s in a name
My one slight complaint is the title. Having been sent an advance copy (thank you) with the title not actually on the front page I found it just didn’t stick in my mind. I kept thinking of the book as ‘the unknown warrior/soldier’, ‘Caroline Scott’s new one’ or ‘The new Photographer of the Lost book’. None of which are suitable alternatives I know! Having seen the proposed cover by Simon and Schuster however I am sure you will have no such problems.
I was scared I wasn’t going to love When I Come Home Again as much as I did The Photographer of the Lost. But I did, I do, I really do. Buy it in October folks (it’s not out until then sorry). Then come back and tell me how much you love it too.
