The third volume in Pat Barker's remarkable trilogy, The Ghost Road brilliantly explores the pathos and human cost of World War I through the lives of two men divided by class, but sharing a mutual respect and empathy. One is Lieutenant Billy Prior, cured of shell shock by famed psychologist Dr. William Rivers; the other is Dr. Rivers himself, consumed by the moral dilemma of restoring men to health only to send them back to the battlefield.