Another World

By ELIZABETH GLEICK

The author of the stunning Regeneration trilogy clearly has still more to say about World War I. Geordie, 101, on his deathbed, is haunted by visions of the trenches and the death of his brother. His grandson Nick, who is nursing him, is struggling instead with one of the modern age's versions of warfare, a cobbled together, dysfunctional family. Nick moves between his grandfather's past and his own unsettled present wondering about survival. But Barker's faith in the power of redemption lets her, and the reader, down: the hasty if elegiac conclusion promises a peace that is too easily won.

--By Elizabeth Gleick