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Where to start reading Sebastian Faulks

Where to start reading Sebastian Faulks

by Ruth Waldram

2 September 2025

min read

Distinguished British author Sebastian Faulks is celebrated for his masterful storytelling and psychological insight. His writing explores the emotional landscapes of war, identity, memory, and love, bringing historical periods vividly to life through the engaging inner lives of his characters.

Born in 1953 in Donnington, Berkshire, Faulks began his career as a literary editor on newspapers before tuning to fiction full-time. He is best known for his historical fiction, particularly the acclaimed French trilogy – Girl At The Lion d'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray – comprising three novels set in France spanning different periods of the 20^th Century. His ongoing Austrian trilogy includes Human Traces and Snow Country.

Based in London, Faulks continues to write fiction and non-fiction with his trademark incisiveness and compassion. His work not only illuminates the past but also speaks to the complexities of modern life, making him an essential writer for anyone interested in modern British literature.

What has Sebastian Faulks written?

Faulks has written 23 books over the last four decades. Beyond historical fiction, his contemporary novels include Paris Echo and The Seventh Son, and he has written critically acclaimed non-fiction spanning literary criticism, biography, and memoir. Some of Faulks’ books, including Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, have been adapted for the stage and screen, with Eddie Redmayne and Cate Blanchett taking on leading roles respectively.

The best Sebastian Faulks book to read first

Girl At The Lion d'Or (1989)

Set in a small French town in the 1930s, The Girl at the Lion d'Or tells the story of Anne, a young waitress haunted by a family scandal, and Hartmann, a married former intelligence officer disillusioned with his quiet life. As their love deepens, personal and political tensions mount and the country around them drifts towards crisis. While it may not be Faulks’ most famous novel, as the first instalment of the French trilogy it is a brilliant introduction to his writing, and epitomises the emotional power and intricate inner worlds of his characters that stay with readers.

Sebastian Faulks' most famous book

Birdsong (1993)

Birdsong is arguably Faulks’ best-known novel, studied in schools and adapted into a two-part BBC drama in 2012 starring Eddie Redmayne. Set in 1916, the story follows Stephen Wraysford, a young English soldier whose deployment to the Western Front sees him revisit the site of passionate affair he had six years prior. Though not based on a true story, Birdsong is rooted in meticulous historical research, and was written to give a voice to the experiences of soldiers in World War 1. The second book in Faulks’s French trilogy, Birdsong is also a deeply moving and beautifully written standalone read.

More must-read books by Sebastian Faulks

Charlotte Gray (1998)

Charlotte Gray centres around a young Scottish woman who parachutes into occupied France in 1942, driven by duty to the British war effort and a desperate hope of finding her missing lover. Landing in the town of Lavaurette, Charlotte becomes entangled in the tensions of the Resistance and personal loss, in a story that deftly explores themes of memory, identity, and the quiet heroism of ordinary lives. Faulks lived in south-west France while writing this book, which stands as a powerful companion to Birdsong and The Girl at Lion d’Or and a haunting portrait of wartime France.

The Seventh Son (2023)

Written in 2023, The Seventh Son is a masterclass in literary storytelling and one of Faulks’ most ambitious and timely works. Set across London, New York, and the Scottish Highlands, the story begins with a tech billionaire’s secretive IVF experiment that produces a child unlike any other named Seth. As young Seth’s differences become more apparent, powerful forces close in. Faulks explores big questions about what it is to be human with his trademark emotional depth and all the pace of a thriller.

Paris Echo (2018)

This 2018 novel follows two outsiders in contemporary Paris – Hannah, an American historian researching Vichy France, and Tariq, a Moroccan teenager hoping to learn more about his late mother – whose lives intersect as they navigate the unfamiliar city. Paris Echo is a meditation on how the past continually shapes the present, and showcases Faulks’ gift for weaving history with intimate human stories. It is also a love letter to Paris that will transport you to the city’s historic streets.

Engleby (2007)

Faulks’ seventh book, one of his most daring and original, was such a departure from his previous works that he asked his publisher if they wanted to publish under a nom de plume so not to confuse readers of his earlier writing. Narrator Mike Engleby is a brilliant but unsettling student in 1970s Cambridge. As he tells his story of a traumatic past, a missing girl, and his rise as a journalist, cracks begin to form in his recollections. At once repellent and hypnotic, Engleby’s dark humour and razor-sharp observations make for an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a fragmented mind.

Where My Heart Used to Beat (2015)

Where My Heart Used to Beat offers a deep exploration of the emotional and psychological scars left by war. When British doctor Robert Hendricks visits a mysterious host on a remote French island, he’s drawn into a reckoning with his past, from the horrors of WWII Italy, to lost love, to the moral challenges of post-war trauma. As his memories resurface, so do questions about truth and healing. Poignant and ambitious, this novel blends historical fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, resulting in a moving portrait of a person’s search for meaning in their past and present.

Sebastian Faulks' memoir

Fires Which Burned Brightly (2025)

Fires Which Burn Brightly sees Faulks turn his pen to his own life, in a memoir that offers a fascinating insight into the man behind the writing. With vivid, often wry prose, Faulks reflects on his childhood in post-war England, finding literary success, and tales of personal (mis)adventures, from his days working on Fleet Street to the writing of Birdsong. Self-aware and quietly moving, this is life writing at its most heartfelt, beautifully crafted, humorous, and readable.

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