Strange Meeting

by Susan Hill

Book Overview

Susan Hill's classic novel Strange Meeting tells of the power of love amidst atrocities.

'He was afraid to go to sleep. For three weeks, he had been afraid of going to sleep . . .'

Young officer John Hilliard returns to his battalion in France following a period of sick leave in England. Despite having trouble adjusting to all the new faces, the stiff and reserved Hilliard forms a friendship with David Barton, an open and cheerful...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140036954
• ISBN13: 9780140036954
• Release Date: April 1976
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Little Book

The book is brief, yet the author has crafted it so that every detail counts. Characters are described in depth with precise strokes, but the story never loses rythm. Susan Hill succeeds in conveying the collective miseries of war as well as the intimate tragedy of John Hilliard, a shy young Englishman that does not seem to find his place in life. Isolated from a cold family that is uncapable of providing the love he needs to cope with the horrors he has to face in his life at the front during World War I, Hilliard unexpectedly learns to look at life from a different perspective when he overcomes his reluctance to socialize and forges a deep friendship with an extraverted fellow officer. War is omnipresent in the whole story and takes its heavy toll on the characters. However, a light of hope remains in the (up to a certain extent)open ending. In a few words, the classic tragedy of youth cut short by the nonsense of war skilfully told from an intimate perspective.