'Human Traces' by Sebastian Faulks

I read 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks when it was published, and it was a life-changing book. I had never read a modern novel before that was so meticulously researched that it seemed to have been contemporaneous with the era in which it was set, which was the First World War.
I was so in awe of Faulks' skill that I shied away from his later books as I did not want to break the magic. Just like we have favourite albums, a favourite novel can be a bit of an elephant in the room. I was scared to read anything new by Faulks in case it somehow tarnished the magic of 'Birdsong'.
This summer I decided that an acceptable length of time had passed (nearly twenty years, I note with alarm) that I could read some of his more ambitious recent books. I had read 'The Fatal Englishman' last summer. I first read 'A Week In December' It was OK - a bit to much of a gimmick, and the characters who were spot on for 2009 have already dated because the world moves on so quickly.
'Human Traces' has sat on my bookshelf in hardback since I bought it in 2005, tempting me to launch into it. It is 600 pages long, so I had the excuse that a short holiday was not long enough to read it completely.
I started it at the start of September and it took me a month to read. It will take a lot longer to sink into my bones.
What Sebastian Faulks has done, in a very long and rich book, is to examine the meaning of families. The plot, which centres on the life stories of two aspiring 'alien doctors' (psychiatrists), is incidental. I thought I was reading a great double-life story. The twist comes in the final quarter of the book when it becomes clear that what the author is actually doing is showing how strong the power of human love can be. The central relationship is one of mother to son, and the bitter, devastating grief of loss.
It is a book for parents to read. Had I read it in my twenties before I became a father, I doubt if it would have had such a profound effect on me.
For all the parents out there: can you remember how your world-view changed forever when you first held your child? In this book, right at the end, Faulks encapsulates that feeling.
It is devastating and brilliant.