War evokes memories that many would rather quickly forget. However, when Elinor's brother, Toby, is killed, the past becomes an inescapable force, the only one that can unravel the mysteries of Toby's final days on the battlefield. How exactly did her brother die and why? Elinor seeks help from those around her, but they reveal secrets of their own. Her classmate Kit, an eyewitness to Toby's death, holds a crucial clue to what happened, but he refuses to talk. With the help of her former lover, Paul, Elinor is determined to discover the truth, but at what cost? More crucially, what was the secret affair between the siblings in 1912, and what will it mean for all when Toby's ghosts finally catch up with them?
"Toby's Room" moves from the Slade School of Art before the First World War to Queen Mary's Hospital, where surgery and art converge to restore the scarred faces of wounded soldiers. This compelling drama of identity and injury, intimacy and loss, is Pat Barker's most powerful novel yet.