A God in Ruins

This beautiful wartime novel is by one of my favourite authors and tells the story of a British WW2 pilot facing the deadly attrition rate amongst bomber crews, but is also a gentle soul and poet, who becomes a husband, father, and grandfather.

It is a tale as much about navigating the peace as it is about surviving the war, a future the beleaguered protagonist never expected to have. At times very funny and wonderfully observed, it is emotionally charged, sometimes tragic, but also heartwarming and uplifting.

With a diverse cast of characters, it is like my own stories where… show more.

This book haunted me long after I’d finished. Telling the story of an English bomber pilot in World War Two—an ordinary hero—and his endearing eccentric family, A God In Ruins ponders the brutality of fate. The narrative is woven through different timeframes, plunging us into the real human experience and the unbearable moral question of carrying out acts of war. The novel made me question my concept of reality, of memory, and of choosing a path in life. Have you ever wondered if your own parallel universe is unspooling simultaneously as another lifetime?