The Warm Hands of Ghosts

ByKatherine Arden

Release Date: 2024-02-13
Genre: Historical Fantasy

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 96 Ratings

Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

“A wonderful clash of fire and ice—a book you won’t want to let go of.”—Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander

“Spectacular—a tour de force, wonderful and deep and haunting.”—Naomi Novik, author of A Deadly Education

ONE OF BOOKPAGE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

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.

As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.

Reviews

Worth it.
5
By Foggydusk
Exceptional.
Great book all around! Enjoyed it thoroughly.
5
By 33katv
Great book!
A hauntingly beautiful historical fiction!
5
By Loves struck 13
Katherine Arden
The Warm Hands of Ghosts

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book had me happy, sad, mad, worried, scared! All of it! I have never read a historical fiction like this! Well done.

About: During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise.

Favorite Character: Winter! He just gets it. He’s so loyal and kind, I just adore him and feel like I know him.

What I loved: I already love historical fiction, but this book had such an eerie touch to it that was so symbolically beautiful! It was terrifyingly heartbreaking! I will be thinking about this book for a while.

What I disliked: The ending made me sad even though I understood, I guess I just wish it ended a little differently, but it wasn’t a bad ending. I just selfishly wanted it my way.

The entire time reading it I was thinking about re-reading it! This one will definitely make you think and feel it all!

Thank you,

Katherine Arden, Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC copy