This was the first of the trilogy I believe and the most lightweight although it did tell a lot more than a typical wartime romance. I'd recommend it on the basis of being a good read and good introduction into the other two books, Birdsong and Charlotte Grey.

It really felt like the only purpose of setting the story in the 30’s was for the women in the story to suffer. Also too much incel and pedophilia sympathising content for a book written in the 90’s. What the hell

A gentle but sad love story from one of my favourite authors. Just what I needed after a run of new best sellers 3 for 2-ing everywhere.

Loved the writing- the sentences and descriptions! I felt like I was reading a French Downton Abbey!

A gorgeous book. Even though it is set in the 1930s, it has a 19th century feel about it, and I mean that in a good way. The writing is beautiful and subtle. Love it.

If you are dying for something to read, just so you can look at letters and exercise your brain, then read this. It's like mental jellybeans.

young girl fleeing family shame [father shot an officer rather than go back to trenches in WWI) moves from Paris to southern hotel, where she falls for member of local gentry
interesting collection of characters - harsh hotel manager, dodgy builder ,womanising architect, PFY etc
backdrop of intolerance, growing racism toward jews, misgovernance and political scandal, and fear of renewed war with Germany

This was an easy read and I suppose enjoyable but I am not sure why. It wasn't terribly original, not much happens and it doesn't begin to compare to Faulks' other French books and yet I found myself turning page after page. Hmmmm. All I can say with certainty is I'll read more of his work.

This book was well-written, but I just didn't connect with the material. It was difficult to understand character motivations, and how the two main characters were attracted to each other. I want to give this 3 stars, but I didn't really enjoy my reading. If Goodreads did half stars, this would be 2.5 for me.

I don’t know how to start expressing my hatred for this book. It was so insufferable that I barely brought myself to finish it. So, let me start by reviewing the things I absolutely hate about it, and then I will move on to the two things I like about it.
Firstly, I hate how the protagonist’s (Anne’s) life revolves around men and how she does not seem to mind it. She is saved by men over and over again. First by Mr. Louvet when she was a kid and then later in life by Hartmann who used and abandoned her. Her experiences with men and M. Louvet’s shallow philosophy of abandonment form her entire personality.
She leaves for Paris with no plan in mind and away from the men in her life because her life has ended now that Hartmann has left her. She ends up on the streets, hungry and homeless. She even considers hurting herself with a pair of gardening scissors but ends up cutting an apple tree which is a reference to her affair with Hartmann. This could be considered the only feminist thing in this whole book. She finally frees herself of Hartmann. But guess what? A strange man hands her money and feeds her right after this very incident when she has hit rock bottom. Again saved by a man.
She has only two women friends in the whole book: Delphine and Mathilde which we barely get to hear from. They are only mentioned when Anne spends time with them. She does not feel connected to them or anyone else besides Hartmann.
I could understand why a reader would rule out Heartmann as an exception in this continuous cycle of men who save (but also use) Anne. I can almost agree with arguments such as “he seemed to understand her”, and “he seemed to change his mind about her” but I disagree. He was initially in it for sex and what forced him to feel responsible for Anne was not an epiphany he experienced on his own but  Anne’s trust in him. Guilt drew him towards her. The very same guilt made him leave her in the end.
Anne is, unfortunately, a victim of a “woman character written by a man”. She doesn’t have a personality. She just runs away when she is upset or abandoned. Her only defining feature could be her resilience as stated by Hartmann which means “oh you had a troubled childhood but you are still alive.”
I gathered some quotes about Anne and Christine (Hartmann’s wife) which support my argument that it is painfully obvious that these characters were written by men. Anne  “had to turn away from Hartmann for fear that she might throw herself into his arms and beg for his protection” when she talks to him. Christine overthinks when she hears the rumors about his husband cheating on her. The readers are introduced to her train of thoughts and learn that Christine knew “she was not beautiful” and she compares Anne’s beauty with “her own dry womb”.
The second thing I hate about this book is how Anne does not seem to mind the abuse that men inflict on her. These abuses have no long-lasting effects on her besides a fear of abandonment. I despised the fact that the writer inserted a meaningless rape scene at the end of the book (Yes, it was rape. She was intoxicated and had no way to resist him. Just because he kissed her goodbye does not mean it was not rape.) A sexual assault would leave a person shattered but Anne does not seem to dwell on it too much as she leaves for the train station.
She does not mind it when Hartmann slaps her, she does not mind it when she realizes that Louvet had been using her for money all along and had ill intentions, and she does not mind it when Mattlin assaults her. I simply can not comprehend how someone could dismiss it all.  I understand that her coping mechanism may be disassociation but the reader does not get to witness any long-lasting effects these abuses might have on Anne besides the shallow advice that M. Louvet tells her about abandonment which seems to be the only thing that resonates with her ever.
I was going to add the sheer disgust that the male characters of this story left me with as the third thing I hated about this book but honestly, there is nothing unrealistic about their behavior or personalities. In fact, I believe the writer has a thorough understanding of how men justify the abuse they inflict on others. The part about the pedophile minister describing his abuse made it very clear that these men will take no responsibility for their behavior. Instead, they will blame “half-grown women” for “not being so innocent” rather than admitting that they were predators and other men will “understand the temptation”.
Moving on to the things I like about this story, I think it did a very good job of portraying the horrors of war and the long-lasting effects it leaves on people and society. The best example of this would be the Patron. He has lost many of his friends in the war, has joined the war himself, and developed agoraphobia as a result of his experience in the army. He struggles to make coherent sentences when speaking to Anne and gives her meaningful advice by asking her to stop by the war memorials in town to think of the names written on them as real people and not just names.
There is a constant fear of Germans among the characters in the book and the French society’s then state of being on the brink of civil war has been presented well. Almost everyone has lost a loved one to the war and nobody wants to go head first into another. Even the fuckboy-rapist-gossiper Mattlin agrees that they will not fight the Germans again. Never again.
People are concerned. They are on edge. We can often witness this feeling of uneasiness during the intermittent talks between men in the story about politics and the current state of their country. They remind each other of the riots that took place in the past, the war that has scarred everyone while they talk about the politician of the hour and their scandals.
The second thing I liked about this book was the side characters. I loved Christine, the Patron, and Mdm. Bouin.
The readers briefly got a glimpse of Mdm. Bouin’s mind towards the end of the story and I would have loved to see a portrayal of grief from her about her son. I truly believe that she would have provided the readers with a better understanding of what it is to lose someone than Anne did with the story about her parents.
Christine was a very interesting character in the sense that she had been through experiences such as miscarriage and infertility. I would have loved to read more about how she handled the miscarriage and her grief afterward. She was self-aware enough to not judge people based on their class even though she was wealthy because she had known what it was like to be poor. I truly believed she was more than Hartmann’s jealous wife who just sat around the Manor and missed him when he was gone.
The Patron’s mental struggles had been presented well both during his encounter with Anne and his interaction with Hartmann. He is just afraid. Of people. Of loss. Of crowds and war. He mostly stays in his quarters. He is the embodiment of what war does to people.
Overall, I would give this book 2 out 5. 1 for the successful portrayal of war and it’s effects, and 1 for the well written side characters.

Personally, I too had a fairly chaotic childhood and early adulthood after the loss of my mother as a pre-teen, so I identified somewhat with Ann's plight, her insecurities, and her search for love.
I see her as someone desperate for human connection, but sadly not finding it among the people in her environment except for one man. Hartman.
Ann falls for him as he is kind where others are not. Sadly Hartmann is simply a user, so this also does not turn out well and again she is alone.
The story of her life is one of loss, pain, and loneliness.

I have read all of the books in the trilogy. Most certainly read them in the wrong order. Birdsong is my favourite. The girl.... D'Or is my least favourite. Whilst I do like the way SF writes. I was disappointed in this one, not much happens you can feel the tension of the war that is looming but the romance and sexual tension between Hartmann and Anne is sadly lacking. Very disappointing ending. A short book but I'm surprised I finished it