[This is a review I wrote in 2009]

**A story of brotherly love and of senseless war.**

The trenches of the First World War and the senseless loss of life such as that which took place on the Somme in 1916, is one of the greatest atrocities that Western Europe has seen in the last 100 years. I read a lot of First World War literature, both fact and fiction; for adults and for children. This is a novel which adds yet another dimension to the literature of the Great War.

Essentially The Harrowing is a story of two brothers, and ultimately a story of brotherly love and devotion conquering prejudice, misplaced justice, revenge, and the atrocities of war. William and Samuel Redmond are brothers, brought up in the terraces of Leeds. William, the elder of the two teenage boys, has just been conscripted to serve in the army. Samuel, the younger, seethes with the pain and frustration of constantly living in his brother's shadow; his brother William who can do no wrong. On the eve of William's departure, as the boys are walking across the moor, Samuel is overcome at the thought of following in his brother's footsteps yet again; of being sent off to war when he comes of age; of having to serve as a private and answer to his brother, who he imagines will have risen through the ranks and become a captain by this time. Samuel takes hold of a rock and smashes it into his brother's head. (Nothing to spoil the plot for you here, as this all takes place in the first couple of pages).

This event is to form the basis of the story, as William when he awakes from a coma, determines to find his brother, even if that means joining up, donning an army uniform, and with a constantly throbbing aching head following his little brother across the channel to the fields of Flanders. William's motivation is not revenge, but forgiveness, and to bring home his little brother who is serving underage in the fields of France. Many obstacles cross the paths of both boys and they both change significantly as each searches for something lost. Samuel becomes especially easy to empathise with as he is forced to grow quickly into manhood, and his confidence, stature and personality grow with him too.

A thoughtful read; the book improves as the story progresses. A slow start, packed with flowery and unnecessarily poetic language detracts from the story, the setting and the background of war. The author does convey a sense of the confusion William must feel when he awakes from the fog of his head injury, but in the process he creates an element of confusion, which at times borders on boredom, for the reader. That said, the book picks up in both pace and clarity and I found I was really wanting to turn the pages by Part Three. Although I think the book could have been fine-tuned a little more, there is something quite powerful in the story that leaves you thinking about the fate of these two brothers long after you have turned the final page. Not the best novel I have read this year, but still a good one and a worthy addition to stories about the First World War. ( )

I'm not sure if it's me or the book, but I'm nearly halfway through and finding the characters implausible and the timeline extremely murky. The implausibility of the characters wouldn't bother me too much because I think the book is meant to be a sort of fable, with the main two characters in particular representing good and evil. But hardly anything anyone does makes sense, other than to advance the story.

The timeline problems may be due to my ignorance about how things worked during World War I or perhaps my inattentiveness to detail as I read, but it seems like the author should keep people's ignorance in mind, and once I got confused I tried to work out the timeline and couldn't make any sense of it. From what I can tell, in the space of three weeks, we have a character who attacks his brother, runs away, is found, given false enlistment papers to sign, is sent to a regiment, arrives at the front, and sends letters home. Umm...

Later, there's discussion of what was in some orders that the author went to some pains to show that the main character wasn't going to read, but later it's assumed that he did--or something. Sometimes the prose gets in its own way, becoming unnecessarily and annoyingly opaque,

The author puts a lot of emphasis in the emotional arc of the story and the metaphorical "harrowing of hell," and these ideas have a lot of potential, but some of the basic building blocks of plot and characterization are left behind.

First, of all, I didn't finish the book so this cannot be considered a true review, just an exploration of why the book did not work for me.

I was really looking forward to this novel, being both familiar with the Leeds area and an avid reader of war literature. The premise is interesting but unfortunately the book simply takes too long to get the plot moving. This may have been bearable if the writing had had sufficient beauty or interest, but I found the prose rather self-consciously 'literary'. It distanced me from the situation and the characters to the extent that what should have been a gripping, taut narrative failed to capture my emotions at all.

This is a well crafted debut novel from Robert Dinsdale. Some wonderful sentences and fine metaphors. 'The questions were like wolves baying a the moat of some prehistoic fortress', although one wonders were there 'prehistoric' fortresses? And although I love metaphor, I did feel in the first third of the novel it was perhaps over weighted by it a little.

The story is primarily that of two brothers, William and Samuel, the older of whom (William), without intending to, overshadows the younger. Set against the backdrop of the trenches during World War I. I didn't feel that this novel had anything new to add to the volume of work both fact and fiction with this setting, but it was handled deftly.

I did feel it could have done without the over used imagery though of the Christmas football much between enemies.

Flaws aside, I shall definitely be watching this author to see what he does next. ( )

I'm afraid to say that this book has the right title but for all the wrong reasons - it is a very harrowing read, mainly due to it's terribly poor prose style. Hated it, sorry. ( )