In the spring of 1914, a group of young students gather in an art studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are two components of a love triangle, and at the outset of the war, they turn to each other. After volunteering for the Red Cross, Paul must confront the fact that life, love, and art will never be the same for him. Pat Barker is unrivaled in her ability to convey simple, moving human truths. Her skill in relaying the harrowing experience of modern warfare is matched by the depth of insight she brings to the experience of love and the morality of art in a time of war. Life Class is one of her genuine masterpieces. "Beautiful and vocative...A coming-of-age story that transcends the individual and gestures to the fate of a generation." "Barker's grim, gray depiction of the hospital at the front, and of ghastliness of combat, approaches her finest writing, elegant and sweeping…She is the best English novelist working today." "Written with wrenching, telling detail…Life Class feels urgent and timely." "Mature, unsentimental and searching. One of this excellent writer's finest books." "The author's unflinching eye for detail and her supple prose create an undeniably powerful narrative." "Readers…will appreciate the care she takes in her rich, deliberate character building."
