Beginnings: Birdsong

Title: The title is striking because of the juxtaposition of the subject matter. A novel that you know to focus on death and destruction seems odd when it's title has a positive image. Perhaps the author was suggesting birds or rather the 'natural world' remain ignorant of the war. They remain indifferent which suggests war is not important. The title will however, remain as a somewhat mystery that you expect the novel to provide answers to. When the book doesn't hand you the answer, it creates question that can only be answered through interpretation and contemplation. The title does not directly infer to the reader what is coming but by being so indirect creates more shock when the subject matter is so 'in your face'.

Epigraph: "When I go from hence, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable."(Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali)

This epigraph can easily stir the reader and hint at the horrific images that will be portrayed. It also unconsciously implies that the "parting word" will be found in the novel. What makes this epigraph even more fitting is that Wilfred Owen wrote it in his last letter to his mother before his return to the front in November 1918, when he died.

Opening: "The Boulevard Du Cange was a broad, quiet street that marked the eastern flank of the city of Amiens." While the opening sentence is not a bombardment of action, it's gentle detail slowly brings you into the novel, which filled with love, is also filled with horrific images of the brutality of war. The detail in the novel is important. It's striking realism is key to believing the love and by starting the novel with what could appear to be insignificant details, we learn as readers to except what Faulks is telling us as the truth. Therefore, the opening is important, not for just simply setting the scene or the embarkment on building tension and reader expectation but for preparing us as reader's.