REGENERATION - Penguin

'A brilliant novel...at its centre is a real-life encounter that occurred at Craiglockhart in 1917 between WHR Rivers, an army psychologist, and Siegfried Sassoon...Intense and subtle, getting responsively under the skin of both real and imagined characters, Regeneration is receptive to all aspects of the era - and the heroes - it resurrects' - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times Dr William Rivers is an army psychologist based at Craiglockhart War Hospital. His job is to try to restore the sanity of officers driven out of their minds by their experiences in action in the First World War. Their memories rise up to haunt and persecute them - memories of the death of friends and enemies. But these are not the only memories to haunt the book. Dr Rivers uses all kinds of memories to liberate his patients from their nightmares and is inevitably reminded of his own. Regeneration is a powerful, indeed unforgettable book. Pat Barker's brilliant ability to capture the moods and voices of her characters takes the reader directly into their lives. This haunting novel is a vivid and authentic evocation of the First World War; it is also an impressive and extraordinary exploration of how all kinds of people find strength in one another. This is the first novel of a trilogy - it is followed by The Eye in the Door, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize and The Ghost Road which won the 1995 Booker Prize.