Cover Image: The Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier

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Member Reviews

As late as this review, I still want to write it as I really enjoyed this book and it deserves all good reviews it can get.

I'm not a fan of romance but the backdrop of war and the unflinching details of injuries and illness add adequate grittiness to avoid the mushiness I dislike in the genre. But then this is more a love story than a romance - or more precisely, it's a story about love.

The writing is impressive, atmospheric and poetic, especially when describing the natural world, with some gorgeous turns of phrase. The plot builds nicely, the main characters fully fleshed out and the secondaries avoid mainly avoid cliches and stereotypes. The romance is tempered from the off by a growing sense of foreboding, culminating in the harrowing scene with the titular character. The second part of the story is more melancholy and slows the pace a little.

But the ending....have to say I absolutely loved the ending, one of the best I've read in a lot of months. Technically, it is a 'sad' ending, dripping in pathos, that I'm sure many will find unsatisfactory and not the sort of ending expected in a romance. I thought it avoided the predictable and twee ending that seemed to be on its way really nicely and I found it to be ultimately an uplifting release from what had come before. It was actually, for me, a perfect ending for all of the characters.

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Perhaps in Vienna…
The younger son of a minor Polish aristocratic family decides to study medicine in Vienna in the years immediately preceding the First World War. His results on the purely theoretical course are outstanding but his clinical experience is limited to removing wax from a single patient’s ear. On the outbreak of war he enlists as a medical doctor and is sent to a remote field hospital near the Galician front. When he arrives he is greeted by the nursing sister a young nun who is the only practitioner in the semi-ruined church which makes up the hospital. This church is packed with wounded soldiers, many of whom have had recent surgery, including successful amputations. Who has performed the surgery? What is the new doctor, entirely lacking in practical skills to do?
Many years ago I read Daniel Mason’s first novel, The Piano Tuner, a terrific debut set in Victorian Burma, which owed much to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. On the strength of that novel I could not wait to read this. A doctor himself, the author is highly experienced in neurological disorders caused by conflict trauma; but he is also a brilliant and inventive novelist and I was not in the least disappointed by this tale. Its complex and moving plot owes a debt to Doctor Zhivago, but also packs many original shocks and surprises and a love story which defies expectation. This is a strong contender for my novel of the year.

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To begin with I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this novel. It begins in a fairly standard historical fiction-type setting but obviously with the Great War looming. But it quickly shifts to a saga or romance (with more than the occasional war-based gruesome flourish) before taking us very much by surprise by changing up a gear. This is where the meat of the book is and where we are forced to contemplate realities and decisions we would rather not face. It is here that the book changes from a well-written, lyrical novel to something quite extraordinary.

The novel is near perfect in its execution and pacing; starting and continuing slowly and descriptively when all seems relatively straightforward in the protagonist’s surprisingly bucolic life on the edges of war before, without warning, forcing us along with him to grow up and deal with reality and with potentials and inevitabilities that we do not want to face. Ultimately, this becomes a story of loss and love and indeed beauty found in devastation. But greater than that, it is a story of atonement and acceptance. This is a truly exceptional novel.

In this, a century after the final year of the Great War, I can think of no finer book to bring home the human cost of war and to provoke our consideration and remembrance of this period in our shared European history.

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The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason was a very different subject matter for me. A German (Austrian /Polish) doctor who signed up in 1914 and was sent to the Eastern Front.
It was a roller coaster of emotions and I absolutely loved it. It was very informative, but it didn’t overwhelm me with facts. The story flowed despite the history shared.
I had never really thought about the impact of WW1 on those fighting away from the Western Front. The struggles, losses and the horror, alongside the friendships, bravery and comradery were beautifully portrayed, along with the very human stories of Lucius and those he meets.
I will be buying this for friends as I really want them to read it and speak to me about what they think.
Thank you #NetGalley #TheWinterSoldier

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I really couldn't put this book down and read it within an afternoon. It is a compelling and harsh narrative of the hardships endured by soldiers, and civilians, within the Austrian battlefields during WW1, poignant to remember as the centenary of the armistice draws near this November.
The descriptions of the injuries received by those maimed and killed as well as the dangers of typhus, lice and gangrene whilst in the often makeshift casualty clearing stations was horrifically accurate and portrayed with integrity.
It took me some time to adjust to the way Mason writes; almost as if in a detached voice, however I grew to feel through the book this is indicative of the way trauma and experience eats at the main character, forever changing/hardening him further from the innocence of his youth as he very quickly gets thrown in at the deep end at such a tentative age.
With moments of heartstopping danger and heartbreaking reality this book really brings a unique and mysterious story to life and makes you feel like for just a few hours you have lived it, those unimaginable conditions, the dangers within the forest, the mental tolls of war.

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I was given a free copy by netgalley for a honest review.

This is a book about the journey everyone takes in growing up. Sometimes things don't turn out like you thought you wanted them to but maybe that is a good thing. YOu don't' always get what you want but you just might get what you deserve.

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The reader witnesses in brutal detail Lucius’ struggle to do his best for the soldiers in his care, many of whom have suffered terrible injuries that challenge his medical knowledge and surgical skills. His task is made more difficult by the basic conditions in the makeshift hospital to which he has been posted, the lack of food and medical supplies and the long, cold winters.

Along with a few orderlies, Lucius, and the hospital’s only nurse, Sister Margarete, care for the patients as best they can, battling not only the injuries themselves but the scourge of infection and disease. Before long, the mutual dependence between Lucius and Margarete grows into a forbidden intimacy.

Although Lucius tries to fulfil the principle of ‘do no harm’, this conflicts with his military oath to ‘patch and send’, to return soldiers as quickly as possible back to the front. This dilemma becomes personified in the case of one patient. What follows will have far-reaching consequences for Lucius and others.

I don’t really ‘do’ romance in novels, especially if it’s at all soppy or sentimental, but I’ll freely admit I was slightly tearful at the end of The Winter Soldier. It made me think of Dr. Zhivago albeit David Lean’s marvellous film version rather than the original novel by Boris Pasternak.

The Winter Soldier is a beautifully written novel that depicts the bonds formed through shared experiences in the worst of situations. It’s a story of people thrown together by war, of separation and reunion, of love and loss. I thought it was fantastic.

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The Winter Soldier for me was an extremely detailed look at the way that medicine evolved throughout the war. I also think it offered an insight into a time frame and another subject matter that I don’t think is looked at very often. Saying that this was not a story that grabbed me. I wasn’t pulled into the character’s journeys and some of the information that was put into the story felt out of place and almost unnecessary to the story. I just think that there could have been more connection made with the characters without it. I loved some of the writing, some of which was completely poetic and beautifully described and for that was the saving grace of The Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier follow the story of a young medical student who after learning he will be allowed to perform actual procedures enlists. The problem I have is that there are so many characters who either have extremely similar names or similar personality traits that trying to, them all was unbelievable. Plus they weren’t developed and couldn’t make an impact on the story or the other characters. I wanted a little more drama and action from everything. Maybe switching the focus from medicine to the characters.

I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it if you did end up reading The Winter Soldier. But the ending is one of the most unsatisfactory endings I have ever read. Not one of the questions I had were answered and I’m not sure whether this was a deliberate kind of like the last book in the A Series of Unfortunate Events which was done really well or whether it was a mistake. Either way, I had so many questions and it almost looked like they were going to be answered and then ripped away. It was a disappointment, to say the least.

It’s a shame because I usually really love wartime stories and they usually quickly become one of my favourites, but I just don’t think there was enough about the characters and their lives. I also think the relationships in The Winter Soldier were underdeveloped and I struggled with that aspect. Especially the way the ending worked out. I just wanted more and I expect more from the books I’m reading. Like I said before, there were some really nicely written pieces which saved this book for me, but apart from those passages, I think the story fell flat in my opinion and I am so sad about it!

I don’t think I would recommend The Winter Soldier, it wasn’t the best wartime book and I definitely think there are better out there.

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No.1 read this year thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers. A riveting read and timely due to the 100 year anniversary of the end of the first World War. A young trainee doctor eager for practical experience manages to end up at a makeshift hospital near to the Russian front lines. The horror and gore are all too apparent and he quickly realises he is out of his depth. He falls for a close female colleague and the story becomes even more gripping. A must-read for these darker nights!

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Over the past four years there have been many commemorations of the events which took place during World War 100 years ago. There have been many books looking at various aspects of the war through fact and fiction. The Winter Soldier is something rather different, something quite special. It has been compared to Birdsong and I can see why it will appeal to fans of that book including myself. This is a book which looks at the brutal reality of the war for Lucius, a 22 year old medical student from an affluent family in Vienna.

Lucius hasn't even finished his training, has barely been allowed to touch a patient but he is flung in at the deep end, the only medic at a field hospital in the remote Carpathian Mountains. With no actual experience he finds himself learning rapidly on the job, and learning a lot from Margarete, a nurse and nun, who is clearly skilled and highly competent. There are lots of medical details which have clearly been well researched. There are some graphic medical scenes with shockingly vivid descriptions. The author does not shy away from the horrors experienced by his characters, from the inhumanity shown by some but equally the humanity evident in others. The subject of soldiers suffering from neurological conditions, shell shock or post traumatic stress disorder is one of the themes. It is an area Lucius is fascinated by and an area of medicine not really recognised at that time. The relationship between Lucius and one such afflicted soldier is fascinating and one which resounds throughout the book.

Although there is a passionate affair, a great love in this book, this is no romanticised vision of war. This is blood and gore, lice and typhus, desperation and exhaustion, dedication and determination. This was the reality faced by medics during The Great War. 

The Winter Soldier is a masterfully written book, very moving and thought provoking. This atmospheric book had me gripped from the first page to the last.

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A novel of love and war, The Winter Soldier – almost in the vein of its own antebellum conclusion – redraws the boundaries when it comes to depicting both the violence of the First World War, and a love story between two people caught up in the conflict.

1914, and twenty-two-year-old medical student Lucius Krzelewski is leaving Vienna (and his own sterile existence) behind in search of a greater purpose, to be found somewhere on the war front of the Carpathian Mountains. But instead of the complex treatments, powerful chemicals and well-organised field hospitals promised by one of his few friends, he finds himself in a remote, desolate outpost, led by the enigmatic Sister Margarete. Under her tutelage, for he has no practical experience of his own, Lucius must learn how to heal the most vicious of war wounds, and in the process, becomes witness to the damage men inflict upon each other. But it is the arrival of the strange, shell-shocked Hórvath, the soldier who steps in from the bitter cold, who will change both Lucius’ and Margarete’s lives forever…

And it is change which dominates the novel: not only the violent developments wrought by war, but equally the possibility of change within individuals themselves. Although Mason ably demonstrates his skill for a vivid portrayal of conflict, in which particular phrases linger in the mind even after the story itself has ended, it is perhaps the depiction of his characters which stands out most. Lucius begins the novel a young man fascinated by neurology and the study of the mind; escaping from his mother’s ballroom, medicine becomes the prism by which the light of his world is refracted, and indeed distorted. It is his burgeoning friendship with, and his growing love for, Sister Margarete which leads him not just to an understanding of the cold, hard science of thought, but to the far warmer role of emotion in his own metamorphosis.

Mason’s talent lies in drawing together the setting and the characters to mould a compelling narrative, which is neither a story wholly about war nor about love, but rather deals with the human capacity for making mistakes, and the possibility of atonement. But it is also a novel in which descriptions of places and people are evoked with poetic precision, a story which offers a rare glimpse into a world that lies on the periphery of our own. Small details sketch out even minor characters: there are certain moments which come to define whole figures, like the image of Lucius and his officious, social climber of a mother sat at the dinner table, looking out on two wildly different views. While he finds himself glancing out of the window to a darkened Viennese street below, made grimy by war, she gazes only on the portraits hanging in the room, the furs and armour worn by their sitters; testament to long-dead ancestors and the fading grandeur of her townhouse.

Though evidently a historical novel, The Winter Soldier has a certain timeless edge lent to it by the beauty of Mason’s prose, at times almost dream-like and then suddenly brutal in its vibrancy, and so it is easy to recommend to anyone searching for a slightly different take on the oft-covered subject of the First World War. It is the combination of well-drawn characters, an accessible but beguiling style, and the seductive landscape of Eastern Europe itself which makes it such a pleasure to read. Although perhaps slow at points, there is an undeniable draw to it which pulls the reader in; just like Lucius with Margarete, we find it difficult to look away.

(Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan for offering me the chance to review the book; I received a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review. This review has also been posted on Goodreads.)

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I wanted to love this book but found it hard going. It's clearly well-researched and it's fascinating to see WW1 from the other side, as it were. But the narrative voice isn't convincing and there's more telling and exposition than showing so that it's hard to get involved. Some of the medical scenes are gut-churning (as they should be) but the characterisation is uneven and I never believed the love story at its heart. The writing style never really settles down and in places it feels as if English isn't the author's first language with strange and awkward syntax and expressions. Not for me, I'm afraid.

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