The Narrow Road to the Deep North: Richard Flannagan

This was a sad Story. It followed several people during WWII and the effects the war had on everyone. The main character, Dorrigo Evans falls in love with his uncle's young wife, Amy, and they have an affair. When he becomes a POW the uncle tells his wife that Dorrigo died thinking they could go back to how they were before she met his nephew. Later the uncle dies in a house fire. Dorrigo comes back from the war after beheading people and watching a fellow prisoner get beaten to death (which took an entire day) An old girlfriend is waiting for him, she had Dorrigo believe both his aunt and uncle died in the fire, so they would get married. They have a loveless marriage and have children, then one day Dorrigo and Amy pass on a bridge and neither of them turn back to talk, Amy because she doesn't understand why he never came to find her if he was alive all this time. Amy also has cancer and only a short while left to live so she doesn't think it is worth it. Dorrigo is in disbelief and can't believe she is alive, but realizes the chance is gone. The story makes you numb, which is meant to show how life is after losing everything and becoming someone different than you thought you would be.