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The Soldier's Home
The Soldier's Home is the stunning sequel to the bestselling debut, The Single Soldier, by actor and writer George Costigan. The war is over and his home was built ... but a home is just a set of empty rooms without people and love. After surviving the devastation, secrets, lies and tragedies of a community under German occupation, can people now rekindle their lives, and rediscover their reasons for suriviving? As the soldier waits for the return of his love, the world keeps moving, threatening to leave his hopes and dreams behind. History, secrets and painful truths collide in this astonishingly human, warm and emotive sequel from writer George Costigan.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
400 pages, Paperback
Published September 20, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 4, 2018
4☆ A Captivating Read
Soldier's Home is the second book in the series, but my first book. Although this can be read as a standalone, I do wish I had read the first book.
Soldier's Home is a beautifully written Historical Saga with a good sprinkle of Romance and emotion.
The story is written in two parts Enid and Simone’s. The majority is Simone's captivating letter writing.
The first part of the story is written by Simone. I really enjoyed this part as the reader is privileged to her letters she writes to Jacques. You are able to build up a connection to her thoughts and feelings.
Although Jacques barely replies to these letters.
You can see how lonely and frustrated she is not to have him with her as she raises their son alone in America.
My heart went out to her. No matter how desperate she sounded for word from him he only replied in what seemed to be when she angered him.
Enid is a teacher and writer, we meet Enid when she becomes fascinated with Jacques house. There stories become intwined which made for an intriguing read.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Soldier's Home.
The chapters were short and perfectly paced.
The writing really captured my attention, it was fluid and captivating.
Costigan artfully weaves a compelling tapestry of heartache, emotion, romance and drama, making this a mesmerising and unmissable read.
Perfect read for those who love emotional, historical Sagas with a dash of romance.
Thank you to Love Book Group Tours for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
My Review is also on my Blog Website:-
https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/2018/0...
Soldier's Home is the second book in the series, but my first book. Although this can be read as a standalone, I do wish I had read the first book.
Soldier's Home is a beautifully written Historical Saga with a good sprinkle of Romance and emotion.
The story is written in two parts Enid and Simone’s. The majority is Simone's captivating letter writing.
The first part of the story is written by Simone. I really enjoyed this part as the reader is privileged to her letters she writes to Jacques. You are able to build up a connection to her thoughts and feelings.
Although Jacques barely replies to these letters.
You can see how lonely and frustrated she is not to have him with her as she raises their son alone in America.
My heart went out to her. No matter how desperate she sounded for word from him he only replied in what seemed to be when she angered him.
Enid is a teacher and writer, we meet Enid when she becomes fascinated with Jacques house. There stories become intwined which made for an intriguing read.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Soldier's Home.
The chapters were short and perfectly paced.
The writing really captured my attention, it was fluid and captivating.
Costigan artfully weaves a compelling tapestry of heartache, emotion, romance and drama, making this a mesmerising and unmissable read.
Perfect read for those who love emotional, historical Sagas with a dash of romance.
Thank you to Love Book Group Tours for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
My Review is also on my Blog Website:-
https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/2018/0...
December 23, 2020
Set in New York, England and southern France, The Soldier’s Home takes up the story of reclusive farmer Jacques Vermande and mother of his son and war refugee Simone who escapes to New York in the 1940s. The story is told in three parts, the first, comprising a third of the novel, a series of letters from Simone to Jacques depicting her life, its trials and joys, along with those of their boy Jack. All the while Jacques is occupied relocating his cottage, stone-by-stone, from his former family farm to a plot of land on the far side of another village.
Through Simone’s letters, the reader is impressed with all of the heartache and tragedy that took place in St Cirgues and Puech through the Second World War. America is changing, New York is changing, and Simone finds herself increasingly identifying with those changes, with modernity. The letters are filled with an acute awareness of her separation from and longing for Jacques, and her slow attempt at saving enough for a trip to France to visit him and introduce him to Jack. Seven years pass.
The second portion of the tale is utterly moving in fatalistic fashion, as longing vies with practical common sense. It would spoil the novel to say more. I found this part of Costigan’s book breath-taking, the author writing with exquisite sensitivity and restraint.
About two thirds in, the story shifts to Pendlebury, England, in 1988, where high school teacher, author and spinster Enid Makin struggles to come to terms with her past, her parents and their respective deaths. Enid has led a sheltered working-class life at a time when British working-class identity was strong, yet it was a life overshadowed by her father who was traumatised by the war and their uneasy relationship as she broke ranks to attend university. It isn’t until she is well into her fifties that Enid musters the courage to step out of her comfort zone and the humdrum life she has been leading. This courage, this whim is what leads her across The Channel to France.
Setting in the novel is strong, New York and England brought to life not so much as physical places, more in the context of the social, cultural and political upheaval of post-war modernity that form a backdrop to this tale and drive the plot, for it is the result of these upheavals that both Simone and Enid made the decisions they did. And as for rural France, it stands as the romantic juxtaposition, its traditional values upheld, and until it, too, undergoes a deep transformation, a gain at once a loss.
Costigan has penned a book to devour, by turns evocative, sentimental and observant. Although it might be possible to read as a standalone, the reader will be cheated out of the very moving and rich story of The Single Soldier, and the welling of passion in the hearts of Simone and Jacques won’t be adequately understood. If you arrive now at The Soldier’s Home do acquire both books and read The Single Soldier first. Highly recommended.
Through Simone’s letters, the reader is impressed with all of the heartache and tragedy that took place in St Cirgues and Puech through the Second World War. America is changing, New York is changing, and Simone finds herself increasingly identifying with those changes, with modernity. The letters are filled with an acute awareness of her separation from and longing for Jacques, and her slow attempt at saving enough for a trip to France to visit him and introduce him to Jack. Seven years pass.
The second portion of the tale is utterly moving in fatalistic fashion, as longing vies with practical common sense. It would spoil the novel to say more. I found this part of Costigan’s book breath-taking, the author writing with exquisite sensitivity and restraint.
About two thirds in, the story shifts to Pendlebury, England, in 1988, where high school teacher, author and spinster Enid Makin struggles to come to terms with her past, her parents and their respective deaths. Enid has led a sheltered working-class life at a time when British working-class identity was strong, yet it was a life overshadowed by her father who was traumatised by the war and their uneasy relationship as she broke ranks to attend university. It isn’t until she is well into her fifties that Enid musters the courage to step out of her comfort zone and the humdrum life she has been leading. This courage, this whim is what leads her across The Channel to France.
Setting in the novel is strong, New York and England brought to life not so much as physical places, more in the context of the social, cultural and political upheaval of post-war modernity that form a backdrop to this tale and drive the plot, for it is the result of these upheavals that both Simone and Enid made the decisions they did. And as for rural France, it stands as the romantic juxtaposition, its traditional values upheld, and until it, too, undergoes a deep transformation, a gain at once a loss.
Costigan has penned a book to devour, by turns evocative, sentimental and observant. Although it might be possible to read as a standalone, the reader will be cheated out of the very moving and rich story of The Single Soldier, and the welling of passion in the hearts of Simone and Jacques won’t be adequately understood. If you arrive now at The Soldier’s Home do acquire both books and read The Single Soldier first. Highly recommended.
May 31, 2018
The Soldier’s Home, actor–writer George Costigan’s follow-up to the best-selling The Single Soldier, finds Jacques Vermande living in France in the early 1950s, rebuilding Janatou for his beloved Simone and their child to return to. They live in New York, where Jacques sent them to safety.
Divided into two parts, the first mostly comprises poignant letters full of love, loss, loneliness and reproach from Simone to Jacques, who rarely responds, while the second, set in the 1980s, centres on Enid, a teacher-turned-writer, who falls in love with the soldier’s home and the story behind it.
The letters that Simone writes, in some cases little more than fragments, are snatches of her life, referencing both the past and her new start in America with her son. As time passes, Simone and little Jack are seduced by America and all it offers, their ties to France and to Jacques tangibly weakening.
In among the outpourings of love and often despair in Simone’s missives, we get insights into the prevailing politics and culture of postwar America. The fear of all things communist, the poverty, racism and inequality which most Americans experience on a daily basis and the slow but turning tide towards desegregation are experienced firsthand by Simone, who lives in Harlem, and whose communist leanings work against her.
As his loved ones’ lives change, Jacques’ seemingly stays static. He waits for Simone to collect enough pennies in the jars she keeps for that purpose – the money to pay for their journey back to him – but his hope dwindles as Simone finds other things to spend it on.
Costigan’s pared back language and beautiful tone set the scene for Jacques and Simone’s fated love affair. A France, still reeling from World War II in the first half of the book, contrasts well with a frenetic 1950s’ New York, and the pace of that first section is uneven as a result, the letters and Simone’s moods largely setting the pace. Conversely, Enid’s story, set decades later, feels much more detached, almost languid in places.
The Soldier’s Home is a very visual book in every sense – the pages illustrated with lovely black-and-white drawings which mimic the simplicity and beauty of Costigan’s prose. And perhaps this is not surprising given that Costigan is an accomplished film and television actor, well used to painting a picture with just a few words.
The Soldier’s Home will stay with readers for quite some time. It’s a lyrical in places, finely tuned book.
See: http://www.theliteraryshed.co.uk/read...
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Kelly Lacey and to the publisher for supplying a review copy. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved.
Divided into two parts, the first mostly comprises poignant letters full of love, loss, loneliness and reproach from Simone to Jacques, who rarely responds, while the second, set in the 1980s, centres on Enid, a teacher-turned-writer, who falls in love with the soldier’s home and the story behind it.
The letters that Simone writes, in some cases little more than fragments, are snatches of her life, referencing both the past and her new start in America with her son. As time passes, Simone and little Jack are seduced by America and all it offers, their ties to France and to Jacques tangibly weakening.
In among the outpourings of love and often despair in Simone’s missives, we get insights into the prevailing politics and culture of postwar America. The fear of all things communist, the poverty, racism and inequality which most Americans experience on a daily basis and the slow but turning tide towards desegregation are experienced firsthand by Simone, who lives in Harlem, and whose communist leanings work against her.
As his loved ones’ lives change, Jacques’ seemingly stays static. He waits for Simone to collect enough pennies in the jars she keeps for that purpose – the money to pay for their journey back to him – but his hope dwindles as Simone finds other things to spend it on.
Costigan’s pared back language and beautiful tone set the scene for Jacques and Simone’s fated love affair. A France, still reeling from World War II in the first half of the book, contrasts well with a frenetic 1950s’ New York, and the pace of that first section is uneven as a result, the letters and Simone’s moods largely setting the pace. Conversely, Enid’s story, set decades later, feels much more detached, almost languid in places.
The Soldier’s Home is a very visual book in every sense – the pages illustrated with lovely black-and-white drawings which mimic the simplicity and beauty of Costigan’s prose. And perhaps this is not surprising given that Costigan is an accomplished film and television actor, well used to painting a picture with just a few words.
The Soldier’s Home will stay with readers for quite some time. It’s a lyrical in places, finely tuned book.
See: http://www.theliteraryshed.co.uk/read...
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Kelly Lacey and to the publisher for supplying a review copy. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved.
February 16, 2019
I had to stop reading The Soldier's Home
I was sat reading it in a trampoline park and feared I would cry in public. I finished it in the privacy of my own home. I didn't cry, but only just and I think only because of the trampoline break in between chapters.
"The war is over and his home was built … but a home is just a set of empty rooms without people and love. After surviving the devastation, secrets, lies and tragedies of a community under German occupation, can people now rekindle their lives, and rediscover their reasons for surviving? As the soldier waits for the return of his love, the world keeps moving, threatening to leave his hopes and dreams behind. History, secrets and painful truths collide in this astonishingly human, warm and emotive sequel from writer George Costigan."
I was very kindly given a copy of this book by Urbane Publications in exchange for an honest review. I had never heard of its predecessor, The Single Soldier although I had seen Costigan in the TV series Vera recently. The book is classed as a stand alone novel although it would really have helped me to have read the first one to get more of the back story between main characters Jacques and Simone.
To be brutally honest I wasn't expecting much and started it ambivalent. Boy, what a fool!
The first half of the book is delivered solely in letters from Simone to Jacques. It was an unusual take yet I immediately fell in love with the prose. Living in America raising their son alone, Simone's references to the alien 'Americans' slowly began to include her as she assimilated into society and I read with an impending sense of doom for Jacques.
Never have I read such intensely heartbreaking prose. Unable to afford to return to France, raising a son who thought of himself as American who had never met his french father. How could Simone ever return to Jacques? Yet she did, and that was even more heartbreaking (it was around this point I hit the trampoline park). I loved quiet, stoic Jacques, yet Costigan wrote Simone in such a way as you couldn't hate her for the life choices she was making. And God, that ending!
About half way through we were wrenched from Jacques to Enid a slightly middle aged school teacher (who will no doubt be correcting my grammar as I type). At first I couldn't get away with the change, I felt disjointed and couldn't emphasis with Enid. The Thatcher references and the miners strike just didn't do it for me and I was internally screaming 'take me back to France'!!! Costigan listened and eventually I warmed to Enid, the pieces made sense and fitted together into a beautiful and fitting ending.
My brilliant reading in 2019 continues. I am so, so grateful to Urbane for sending me the book. It's one of the most emotional, beautiful books that I have read in a long time. As I said I would never have read it under normal circumstances and only began as I felt duty bound to having received it for free. It's stunning. I'll type that again - it's stunning. I will purchase and read The Single Soldier and I will continue to nurse my bruised heart. I'm only relieved that I did not cry at a trampoline park.
I was sat reading it in a trampoline park and feared I would cry in public. I finished it in the privacy of my own home. I didn't cry, but only just and I think only because of the trampoline break in between chapters.
"The war is over and his home was built … but a home is just a set of empty rooms without people and love. After surviving the devastation, secrets, lies and tragedies of a community under German occupation, can people now rekindle their lives, and rediscover their reasons for surviving? As the soldier waits for the return of his love, the world keeps moving, threatening to leave his hopes and dreams behind. History, secrets and painful truths collide in this astonishingly human, warm and emotive sequel from writer George Costigan."
I was very kindly given a copy of this book by Urbane Publications in exchange for an honest review. I had never heard of its predecessor, The Single Soldier although I had seen Costigan in the TV series Vera recently. The book is classed as a stand alone novel although it would really have helped me to have read the first one to get more of the back story between main characters Jacques and Simone.
To be brutally honest I wasn't expecting much and started it ambivalent. Boy, what a fool!
The first half of the book is delivered solely in letters from Simone to Jacques. It was an unusual take yet I immediately fell in love with the prose. Living in America raising their son alone, Simone's references to the alien 'Americans' slowly began to include her as she assimilated into society and I read with an impending sense of doom for Jacques.
Never have I read such intensely heartbreaking prose. Unable to afford to return to France, raising a son who thought of himself as American who had never met his french father. How could Simone ever return to Jacques? Yet she did, and that was even more heartbreaking (it was around this point I hit the trampoline park). I loved quiet, stoic Jacques, yet Costigan wrote Simone in such a way as you couldn't hate her for the life choices she was making. And God, that ending!
About half way through we were wrenched from Jacques to Enid a slightly middle aged school teacher (who will no doubt be correcting my grammar as I type). At first I couldn't get away with the change, I felt disjointed and couldn't emphasis with Enid. The Thatcher references and the miners strike just didn't do it for me and I was internally screaming 'take me back to France'!!! Costigan listened and eventually I warmed to Enid, the pieces made sense and fitted together into a beautiful and fitting ending.
My brilliant reading in 2019 continues. I am so, so grateful to Urbane for sending me the book. It's one of the most emotional, beautiful books that I have read in a long time. As I said I would never have read it under normal circumstances and only began as I felt duty bound to having received it for free. It's stunning. I'll type that again - it's stunning. I will purchase and read The Single Soldier and I will continue to nurse my bruised heart. I'm only relieved that I did not cry at a trampoline park.
June 2, 2018
https://donnasbookblog.wordpress.com/...
I know that this book is a sequel, but I will admit that I haven't read the first book but I didn't feel at any detriment for this and I think it can certainly be read as a stand alone.
I am a massive fan of historical fiction and non fiction so this was right up my street and in probably my favourite genre ad I have to say that I really enjoyed it.
The writing style was brilliant (which I had expected from seeing other reviews) and the whole thing flowed really well. This is certainly one I will be recommending.
Four stars from me for this one, an enjoyable read!
I know that this book is a sequel, but I will admit that I haven't read the first book but I didn't feel at any detriment for this and I think it can certainly be read as a stand alone.
I am a massive fan of historical fiction and non fiction so this was right up my street and in probably my favourite genre ad I have to say that I really enjoyed it.
The writing style was brilliant (which I had expected from seeing other reviews) and the whole thing flowed really well. This is certainly one I will be recommending.
Four stars from me for this one, an enjoyable read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews