What themes stood out for you most powerfully in your reading of "Fly Away Peter" by David Malouf?

First set on the Queensland coast just before the World War of 1914 and later on the battlefields of Europe, "Fly Away Peter" is a narration in the third person based around Jim Saddler and Ashley Crowther, two dreamers and bird enthusiasts in their early 20's. They are satisfied to do little more than sit back, content in their belief that this happiness will remain unchanged forever. But low and behold, the migration to the war …

…cycle of life. At the very heart of Fly Away Peter is an affirmation of the preciousness of life. What remains for Imogen after Jim's death is a sense of his uniqueness as a person, a uniqueness that she sees as "essential in every living creature". It is arguably this celebration of life, rather than the scenes of wartime horror, that lingers in the mind of the reader long after the book has been closed.