Quotes
“The precision of Ms. Barker’s writing shows her again to be one of the finest chroniclers of both the physical and psychological disfigurements exacted by the First World War.” Wall Street Journal
“Unforgettable…Toby’s Room takes large risks…And it succeeds brilliantly.” New York Times Book Review
“The writing is lucid and often beautiful.” Entertainment Weekly
“Images are scrupulously vivid, and the plot has real momentum.” Daily Telegraph (London)
“A tantalizing and moving return to wartime London.” Washington Post
“Barker is so deft handling history, from battlefield scenes to surgery in Queen’s Hospital, that she has few peers.” Cleveland Plain-Dealer
“A novel about how art attempts to depict the horrors of World War One.” Boston Globe
“Art and war are the real fusion in this novel, and Barker offers fascinating meditations on the interrelation between the two…A powerful book.” San Francisco Chronicle
“No one evokes England in all its stiff-upper-lip gritty wartime privation like Barker. She is…determined to render an honest portrayal of war. She will not allow us to sweep it out of sight.” Miami (FL) Herald
“Barker has shown again that she is not only a fine chronicler of war but of human nature.” Independent (London)