THE BLASPHEMER by Nigel Farndale

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Parallel stories set in London during the present day and in Flanders during WW1 explore the psychological carnage from traumatic events. David and his wife Nancy survive a harrowing sea plane crash on holiday to the Galapagos Islands and are forced to sort out damage to their relationship, their family unit, and to themselves. David’s Great-Grandfather Andrew goes ‘over the top’ in Passchendaele to hell on earth, then is guided out of the carnage of battle by a guardian angel to a new life in France with a French widow. But Andrew is recaptured and put on trial for desertion and a date with the firing squad. A keen sense of suspense penetrates a dizzying array of subplots and occasional deep research data dumps on a number of topics (i.e. composer Gustav Mahler and his lost 9th symphony, the existence or not of God, divine intervention or hallucination, translation of Andrew’s forgotten letters to his lost love, the near miss of a terrorist bomb, unfair Muslim profiling, Grandfather “Silky’s” WW2 heroics, a Trinity professorship on the brink, kidnapping of David’s and Nancy’s 9 year old daughter… whew) to a satisfying twist as the stories come together.