''The Ghost Road'' is a

war novel A war novel or military fiction is a novel about war. It is a novel in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield, or in a civilian setting (or home front), where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, suffering the ...

Pat Barker Patricia Mary W. Barker, (née Drake; born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and pl ...

, first published in 1995 and winner of the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The other books in the trilogy are ''

Regeneration Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

'' and ''

The Eye in the Door ''The Eye in the Door'' is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1993, and forming the second part of the ''Regeneration'' trilogy. ''The Eye in the Door'' is set in London, beginning in mid-April 1918, and continues the interwoven storie ...

''. The war poet

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

, who appears as a major character in the first book, ''

'', is relegated to a minor role in this final volume, in which the main players are the fictional working-class officer Billy Prior and the real-life psychoanalyst

William Rivers William Halse Rivers Rivers FRS FRAI ( – ) was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist known for treatment of First World War officers suffering shell shock, so they could be returned to combat. Rivers' most f ...

. Thus Barker explores possible relationships between real people and fictional characters.

Plot summary

Prior, despite his new-found peace of mind and engagement to munitions worker Sarah, has been affected by the war and therefore does not have a lot of concern for his safety. Prior has been cured of

shell-shock Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...

and is preparing to return to France. Prior experiences numerous and risky sexual encounters; his only rule is that he never pays for sex – a rule he eventually breaks. Rivers, concerned for Prior's safety, finally recognises that his relationship with Prior, and his other patients for that matter, is deeply paternal. In contrast with upper-class officers like Sassoon, with whom Rivers has been able to form warm friendships, he has always found Prior to be a thorn in his side. As Prior returns to the front, Rivers continues to take care of his patients and his invalid sister; amid this, he reminisces uncomfortably about his childhood and memories of his experience ten years earlier on an anthropological expedition to

Simbo Simbo is an island in Solomon Islands; it is located in the Western Province. It was known to early Europeans as Eddystone Island. Geography Simbo is actually two main islands, one small island called Nusa Simbo separated by a saltwater lagoon fr ...

(then called Eddystone Island) in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

. There, he befriended Njiru, the local priest-healer who took Rivers on his rounds to see sick villagers and also to the island's sacred Place of the Skulls. With him on the expedition was

Arthur Maurice Hocart Arthur Maurice Hocart (26 April 1883, in Etterbeek, Belgium – 9 March 1939, in Cairo, Egypt) was an anthropologist best known for his eccentric and often far-seeing works on Polynesia, Melanesia, and Sri Lanka. Early life Hocart's family had ...

. This episode is a symbolic capitulation to the inevitability of Prior's death at the Western Front, a fate he shares with the poet

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

. In a futile battle that takes place a few days before the Armistice, Billy and his friend Owen are killed.

Themes

War is a theme that is both overt and hidden. Although the most obvious theme is war between nations, The Ghost Road also details war between individuals and war within oneself. The book is written against a background of the end of World War I in 1918, but it is also filled with flashbacks to a pre-World War I time on a South Pacific island. While the Melanesian island of Eddystone isn't caught up in the world's woes, it constantly fights for its own existence

References

External links

* http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-ghost-road/themes.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Road, The Booker Prize-winning works 1995 British novels Novels by Pat Barker Novels set during World War I Fiction set in 1918 Viking Press books