Good Sons: A Novel of The Great War

by Greg Hall

In early 1914 Frank Wilson and his two close friends, Tom Davis and Robert Sutherland, are growing up in Oamaru in the South Island of New Zealand. The coming war in Europe arouses the hopes and dreams of a generation of young men. The pressure becomes irresistible and one by one the boys become soldiers. Frank delays his decision but in 1916 a strange encounter shocks him into enlisting.
After a rapid coming-of-age in the training camps of the North Island the novel moves to France. A reunion, the insanity of a love affair in the midst of a terrible war and a brutal event set Frank on course for the best and worst days of his young life. As he becomes a frontline soldier and experiences hard fighting, fate forces him to make an agonising decision. Good Sons is a poignant story of youth and war, love and loss, suffering and hope.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Wilson is a 19 year old from Oamaru, New Zealand, who volunteers to fight in WW1. This is his story and it takes us from when the War breaks out through to the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. While it's fiction, it reads like it's true. It's very well researched and full of details that give you a strong sense of what it would have been like to serve at that time. I have read several very good books (and seen many films) set during WW1, but this is the first I've read that focuses on a New Zealander and this gave it an extra poignancy.

The book is written from Frank's point of view. The writing is a little workmanlike, which is particularly noticeable in the pre-War sections, but somehow this adds to the feeling that you are genuinely reading a memoir written at that time.

I have tossed up between three and four stars. I found this very readable and I think it will stick with me. I'm glad I read it, especially when the centenary of Passchendaele was so recent.

[Moira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific work by Greg, one where you think "where did these characters come from?" And you want to know more.

[Cally73 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I appreciated most about this book it's that for a work of fiction it's very well rounded in what it covers about the war. For a average-sized novel it's mangaged to convey a lot without being bogged down in lots of detail, especially if you come into it with some understanding of the war. The newspaper snippets add to the socio-political details, especially those on the homefront. I'm not sure if it was intentional not to mention that the first engagement NZ made was the capture of German Samoa.