Photographer of the Lost

Hey everyone, I am excited as this is my second really highly rated book on the same day to have a blog tour for, and it’s only the second day of the month! Woo!

Until she knows her husband’s fate, she cannot decide her own… An epic novel of forbidden love, loss, and the shattered hearts left behind in the wake of World War I 

1921: Families are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. While many survivors of the Great War have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband Francis has not come home. He is considered ‘missing in action’, but when Edie receives a mysterious photograph taken by Francis in the post, hope flares. And so she beings to search. 

Harry, Francis’s brother, fought alongside him. He too longs for Francis to be alive, so they can forgive each other for the last things they ever said. Both brothers shared a love of photography and it is that which brings Harry back to the Western Front. Hired by grieving families to photograph gravesites, as he travels through battle-scarred France gathering news for British wives and mothers, Harry also searches for evidence of his brother. 

And as Harry and Edie’s paths converge, they get closer to a startling truth. 

An incredibly moving account of an often-forgotten moment in history, The Photographer of the Lost tells the story of the thousands of soldiers who were lost amid the chaos and ruins, and the even greater number of men and women desperate to find them again. 

Every photograph has a story, every story needs an ending. 

Book Information:
Written By: Caroline Scott
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Published On: 31st October 2019
Format: Hardback
Price: £12.99

My Review

I remember the first time I read ‘The Book Thief’ it utterly consumed me on an emotional level, it was rare that a non-fantasy book could have such a huge impact on me. That was a while ago, but, last night as I was reading the last few pages [because of course I procrastinate] I knew that this review was going to be raw to write.

This book is SO poetic in its prose, it’s very rare for me to enjoy books written in present tense in general, but after just simply noting it was in fact in present tense, I never gave that a second thought. It was engrossing, emotional, endearing, so many other awesome e words I’m sure, but really it was just simply amazing.

Harry’s job may seem morbid on paper but he tries to provide answers and closure to those who hire him,. but what he has trouble facing is his own future and feelings, so he turns to them to help blot out what he cannot change or figure out.

Harry lost two brothers during the war, his eldest brother also being Edie’s husband. One day Edie receives a photograph of her MIA presumed dead husband, and it brings the past hurtling forward while throwing the future up in the air, tilting everything on its side.

This book was a journey, a spiritual and, as I said already, emotional one.

The perspectives shift, Harry and Edie at various point during and after the war. There’s loss, grief at its rawest form, and love in perhaps its most vulnerable form.

So many now have not realized that after the war was sometimes as hard as during, though this is continually true for anyone who has been affected by war. After WWI it was the issue of not being able to locate your loved ones, not knowing if they were dead or alive, never knowing where they would be buried, and this is something that most in the Western World hadn’t dealt with on such a large scale.

It was a perfect point to use in history, so often overshadowed and I loved that Scott used this. Her writing style was practically flawless for me and the book is one I intend to carry in my heart for the rest of my life.

You felt as if you were looking through War Torn France with them through a majority of it, and their emotions slid from the page to your heart.

I don’t want to give away more of what happens, but, suffice to say if you have any interest in a book set post WWI that will fill your heart, this one is for you.

Thank you to Anne and the Publisher for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review as part of the blog tour.

About the Author

Caroline completed a PhD in History at the University of Durham. She developed a particular interest in the impact of the First World War on the landscape of Belgium and France, and in the experience of women during the conflict – fascinations that she was able to pursue while she spent several years working as a researcher for a Belgian company. Caroline is originally from Lancashire, but now lives in southwest France.

The Rest of the Tour