Set just before and during WW2, featuring Michael (Miguel) Villiers, son of a Uruguayan mother and British father, who joins the British Royal Naval Reserve after outbreak of WW2. Narrative changes between Michael and one of his Navy colleagues which is slightly confusing. Much impressive background on Uruguay. ( )

No cross marks the place where now we lie
What happened is known but to us
You asked, and we gave our lives to protect
Our land from the enemy curse
No Flanders Field where poppies blow;
No Gleaming Crosses, row on row;
No Unnamed Tomb for all to see
And pause -- and wonder who we might be
The Sailors’ Valhalla is where we lie
On the ocean bed, watching ships pass by
Sailing in safety now thru’ the waves
Often right over our sea-locked graves
We ask you just to remember us.

Having read "Under an English Heaven" by the same author I was keen to read this novel especially as I'm a fan of history based stories. This book is set onboard a tiny corvette (HMS Daisy) during the WWII Battle of the Atlantic. A battle when the mortality rates on both the Allied and German sides reached 70%.
Rather than the Atlantic convoys much of the story is set in pre-war Uruguay where Michael Villiers (Daisy's second officer) is born & grows up, before moving to England & a British boarding school.

This book starts with a few survivors of HMS Daisy in a life boat in the Atlantic making it rather difficult to really bond their ship-mates as characters . The story is told in flashback, as such you know that the narrator must survive even if it seems improbable therefore some of the suspense is taken out of the story. This is very different with "Under an English Heaven" where you fly with the crew of Misbehavin' Martha as they strive to make it through their tour of duty.

That all sounds rather negative and that would be a little unfair as I still found this an enjoyable read. In particular when the author describes torpedoes streaking towards lumbering merchant ships you get an idea of the sheer brutality of submarine warfare especially when the surviving ships are forced to leave their brethren in the water rather than risk losing another ship to the U-boats. Michael's meeting with the captain of the Graf Spee in Montevideo after the Battle of the Plate is pretty poignant as it speaks the Naval family.

In this novel there are similarities to Sebastian Faulks' "Birdsong". In "Birdsong" the main character develops as a man in pre-war France, here the main character does so in Uruguay yet both end up fighting for the Allies. Also as with "Birdsong" the actual fighting of the war is largely secondary.Instead how war affects the participants is central to the story.

If you enjoy reading war fiction then this is worth giving a go. However I do feel that the author missed the chance of creating a real classic which is a real shame. ( )