Strange Meeting

The book is brief, yet the author has crafted it so that every detail counts. Characters are described in depth with precise strokes, but the story never loses rythm. Susan Hill succeeds in conveying the collective miseries of war as well as the intimate tragedy of John Hilliard, a shy young Englishman that does not seem to find his place in life. Isolated from a cold family that is uncapable of providing the love he needs to cope with the horrors he has to face in his life at the front during World War I, Hilliard unexpectedly learns to look at life from a different perspective when he overcomes his reluctance to socialize and forges a deep friendship with an extraverted fellow officer. War is omnipresent in the whole story and takes its heavy toll on the characters. However, a light of hope remains in the (up to a certain extent)open ending. In a few words, the classic tragedy of youth cut short by the nonsense of war skilfully told from an intimate perspective.