Review ~ The First of July by Elizabeth Speller

Open Road
November 2013

This story begins in 1913, on the cusp of WW1, and introduces us four very different young men, whose lives are about to be changed forever by what happens on the First of July 1916, during the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

I found the book to be a well written account of the horror of warfare and of lives broken and lost in the heat of battle. I liked how the author combined the stories so that we are given the perspective from each of the four men, Frank, Benedict, Jean-Batiste, and Harry. Their individual stories give us much to think about.

It is an easy read in many ways, but not light on emotional content, as stories about WW1 never are, and yet there is a depth to the narrative which I found to be both appealing and thought provoking.

My thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for my ecopy of this book.

This book is published in the UK under the title At Break of Day

More about the Author

Elizabeth Speller 

Here 

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