Noonday completes Pat Barker’s second trilogy.  It takes place, for the most part, in London and begins pre WWI and  concludes in 1940.  It is the best of this trilogy and can easily be read as a stand alone novel.  Elinor Brooke, Paul Tarrant and Kip Neville are artists who have known each other for over three decades.  Paul and Elinor are married.but Kit has always longed for Elinor.  Much of the drama, which includes the twists and turns in their relationship, occurs during the London blitz of 1940.  Elinor and Neville are ambulance drivers and Paul is on the rescue squad.  Barker also has two secondary stories-Bertha, an obese medium and Kenny, a young boy taken into the English countryside for safety, who returns to London so he can be with his mother.

Pat Barker’s descriptions of the blitz are beautiful, precise and haunting.  One can almost taste and feel plaster falling from the walls and ceilings during several of the bombings and hear and feel the broken glass as windows are shattered.  Noonday is a must read for fans of Pat Barker.