Toby's Room

Pat Barker returns to the First World War in "Toby's Room", a dark, compelling novel of human desire, wartime horror and the power of friendship. When Toby is reported 'Missing, Believed Killed', another secret casts a lengthening shadow over Elinor's world: how exactly did Toby die - and why? Elinor determines to uncover the truth. Only then can she finally close the door to Toby's room. Moving from the Slade School of Art to Queen Mary's Hospital, where surgery and art intersect in the rebuilding of the shattered faces of the wounded, "Toby's Room" is a riveting drama of identity, damage, intimacy and loss. "Toby's Room" is Pat Barker's most powerful novel yet. Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed "Regeneration" trilogy, comprising "Regeneration", which has been filmed, "The Eye in the Door", which won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and "The Ghost Road", which won the Booker Prize. The trilogy featured the "Observer's" 2012 list of the ten best historical novels. She is also the author of the more recent novels "Another World", "Border Crossing", "Double Vision", "Life Class", and "Toby's Room". She lives in Durham.