This national bestseller is the latest novel from Katherine Arden, who wrote her first novel while living in Hawaii while picking coffee.
In January 1918, in the midst of WWI, she returned home to Halifax, Canada, after being wounded and discharged from the medical corps in France, leaving her brother, Freddie, behind as a soldier fighting in Flanders. When Laura receives inconclusive news of Freddie‘s death in combat along with his uniform, she is determined to find out the truth. So she returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where an old colleague informs her that a wounded German soldier named Hans Winter arrived months ago wearing Freddie’s jacket and confesses that Freddie was still alive. With the German soldier long departed from the hospital, Laura decides to make her way across the region in search of her brother. In a parallel storyline, months earlier, Freddie Ivan awakes trapped in an overturned pillbox with Hans Winter. Out of desperation, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. After several days of excruciating travel and illness taking over, they take refuge with a mysterious man who demonstrates the power to make the hellscape around them disappear. When Freddie and Hans are forced to separate to stay alive, Freddie takes refuge with the mysterious man, and his life becomes even more of a nightmare. As Laura continues to search for her brother, she too becomes acquainted with the mysterious man and quickly discovers how much danger they are all suddenly in.
The audiobook has a haunting, engrossing atmosphere from start to finish. The characters have lost everything and are searching for the one thing left that can keep them afloat while being guided by ghosts in a hellish landscape. Through Arden’s captivating trench fighting scenes and the horror at the wartime hospitals, listeners are accurately shown the destructive and heartbreaking effects of WWI. The book mainly focuses on Laura’s journey, and although her search for her brother is admirable, she’s quite a flawed and unlikeable character. To be somewhat critical, the book could have been more captivating if the story focused more on Freddie, his relationship with Winter, and his ordeal in the fiddler’s hotel.
Narrator January LaVoy displays her brilliant talent in this book, portraying a stern and unwavering Laura with just the right amount of emotion and nerve-wracking tension that makes the performance very convincing. Narrator Michael Crouch’s performance builds in strength throughout the book, cleverly unfolding more and more drama and diversity of expression as Freddie’s mind begins to unravel. The author’s note at the end of the audiobook is definitely worth a listen, as it gives great insight into how the book came to be and some fascinating details about WWI. If you’re a historical fiction lover and appreciate a bit of fantasy along with a harrowing story, then you’ll surely enjoy this book.
