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As a person who studied Global History, I was really taken away by the story-lines of the book; how the author masterfully plotted it and captured the events or the major obstacles of the horrific period in the human history in a different and light-weighted way.

In your opinion, does the book also reflects our present day? why or why not?

I think this book addresses aspects and particularly people who aided in the Great War who have not previously been mentioned. Although this is fiction a lot of it is based on actual experiences by the author's father. Although there is a lot of wry humour in the book it manages to convey an atmosphere of realism due to the detailed research that is included in details within the book.

I don't think this book reflects the society today. It is more focused on the activities in the mid 1950s.

imshaima wrote: ↑12 Feb 2019, 10:24 As a person who studied Global History, I was really taken away by the story-lines of the book; how the author masterfully plotted it and captured the events or the major obstacles of the horrific period in the human history in a different and light-weighted way.

In your opinion, does the book also reflects our present day? why or why not?

I think part of the book reflects our present day because it is a story of war which remains the same in any generation. The difference between war then and now is development of strategies and weapons. Even though the book is fiction, some parts are real as it also entails experiences of Kater's father.

War is so different nowadays, to what it used to be. The mechanism of warfare has become far more high-tech and impersonal. It has also come closer, brought into our homes and lives through advanced communications, social media and the internet. I think the author skillfully captured the war setting of that day, but it is a far cry from what we are exposed to in the present.

As we love to say in my country "History repeats itself constantly". Unfortunately, the same goes for the events of this book as well.

Any lesson from the past is also applicable today. Themes of the human condition recur again and again, although they take different forms.

In some ways, it reflects the present in that "war is war, conflict is conflict." That said, I think it reflects more of that time period than it does the present. As noted by a previous reviewer, war today is very different, influenced greatly by the technology and weapons we now have.

I think that it certainly has thematic applications to modern times, but I'd definitely say that the book is a strong historical piece and is more reflective of that era. My father worked in military intelligence, and even by the end of the Cold War, the way spy networks operated was so fundamentally different.

sonya01 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2019, 17:33 War is so different nowadays, to what it used to be. The mechanism of warfare has become far more high-tech and impersonal. It has also come closer, brought into our homes and lives through advanced communications, social media and the internet. I think the author skillfully captured the war setting of that day, but it is a far cry from what we are exposed to in the present.

I totally agree. Warfare has changed a lot with the development of technology and, even, with the changes in society and politics that have changed the previous "rules" of war and what was expected. I agree we can also see it closer with the development of technology and, in some way, social media and connectivity, in general, give us a voice in social issues and we need to learn how to use it.

War is a common phenomena in any time in this conflict based world. Only the technology and strategies will differ

I don't think the book is a reflective of today. General ideas like war and history repeating itself, maybe there could be a connection. But considering the whole story, I dont think so. Sure we still have wars happening but they are on a completely different reason than in WWII. The story isn't a reflective of today's wars. It's a historical fiction set in the time of WWII, I don't think there's any correlation to today.

In my opinion, the scale of the war may not be as big as during the WWII but there is some reflection to the present. A good example would be spying. The techniques might have changed but it is an art of war that is still being practiced.

Sushan wrote: ↑20 Feb 2019, 02:12 War is a common phenomena in any time in this conflict based world. Only the technology and strategies will differ

I am of this opinion too. Some strategies some such as spy also still exist but perhaps the methods used may change with time depending on the setting.

I think it does not represent our modern society and war. We have more technology now, better air crafts, weapons. Although, I think humanity has become more greedy, hateful and cold towards each other.