The Warm Hands of Ghosts By Katherin Arden
Del Rey, 2024. 322 pages. Fiction
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
With haunting prose, Katherine Arden, author of the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, blends the darkness of the first World War with supernatural elements in this 2024 release. She employs a dual perspective, shifting backwards and forwards in time between Laura and Freddie without the story ever losing momentum. Readers of historical fiction and eerie fantasy will easily lose themselves in the ghostly atmosphere, rich detail, and lyrical writing of The Warm Hands of Ghosts.
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