Blow On A Dead Man's Embers

The title of this book lends it a darker tone than the story warrants. This is no thriller or murder mystery, rather it is the touching story of one woman's attempts to find out what happened to her emotionally bruised husband during World War One. Along the way Non discovers a few truths about her own life too, and has to come to terms with the fact that things weren't as she has always believed.

Of course, Strachan is not the first to use the Great War as the basis for a novel, but her calling card is to set the story in her native Wales, offering a different perspective on the war from a community cocooned by the Welsh hills and valleys, far removed from the fighting that some aren't even sure they should be participating in.  War has invaded the small town like a sickness, taking away its men and bringing back stories of death, courage and weakness, and while the community has tried to get back to normal in the two years since, one man's arrival is poised to expose raw wounds that would be best left covered in the gauze of hazy memory.

Full of detail about life in rural Wales after World War One and containing an array of vivid characters, this is a poignant, gently humorous tale and a lovingly crafted homage to the strength and spirit of the Welsh people.