Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Throughout a period of five days, as the unknown soldier makes its way to Westminster, we follow the lives of three women who have been affected by the war. Ava, my favorite, a mother who struggles with guilt over the death of her son in the war and wants only a body to bury, to know the why and where. Evelyn, who lost her fiancé in the war and also has a brother who was an officer and has returned, but is not the same. Evelyn has become an embittered woman, she feels life has passed he3r by. Lastly Hettie, the youngest, a naïve woman who is trying to make her own life but has a shell shocked brother at home so can not work.

Extremely well done, the book provides glimpses of the war, the ultimate sacrifice of all involved, directly or indirectly, and the journey finding the unknown soldier and those who make the body ready for internment. The title as noted has many meanings all applicable in this poignant novel.

On Armistice Day the bones are buried in Westminster Abbey and the empty Cenotaph War Memorial is dedicated. Although this is a place that families who do not know where their sons were buried can visit, as a sarcastic Eleanor notes, "Is this supposed to make it all okay?"