📖 Book Nostalgia on Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Absolutist by John Boyne

I'm really privileged to read so many latest release books which are so current they haven't even hit the book store shelves that I forget about the books which have influenced my reading over the years.

So, welcome to my mid-month Book Nostalgia feature where I'm allowing myself the luxury of going back in time with some of my favourite reads.

On Hist Fic Saturday

Let's wallow in book memories... and go back to 1917

Doubleday 
2011

During the years 2014 - 2018 I ran a weekly feature commemorating WW1. This included music, poetry and books set during the time. 

The Absolutist is one of the stories I read back in 2017, its effect on me was profound and deeply moving. It remains in my list of favourite novels about the First World War.

This is my book nostalgia read for Remembrance Weekend.

📖 What's it all about...

September 1919: Twenty-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together.

But in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield and declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.

The letters, however, are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep within him. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. Whatever happens, this meeting will change his life - forever.

Here are my thoughts, written when the book was first published in hardback in 2011...

From the start of The Absolutist, I was engrossed in Tristan and Will's story, and found myself really hurrying the pages to see what happened next.

The description of the time in the trenches is poignant, desperately sad, and hugely horrific, but never without tender philosophy.I loved both characters, and wanted everything to work out for them - but like all those who fought and died in the Great war, nothing would ever be the same again.

John Boyne is a master storyteller, who manages in a few short sentences to convey a complete world, and a time and place that really exists in your subconscious, with characters that come to life, and who live on in your memory, long after the last page is turned.

Beautifully narrated with a profound sadness which has stayed with me since I first met Tristan and Will. That's why I make no excuses for featuring again this excellent WW1 novel written by an author who is, always, at the top of my favourite historical novelists.

About the Author

John Boyne is an Irish novelist born in Dublin.  He has written novels for adults, children and a collection of short stories.

Twitter @john_boyne #TheAbsolutist #WW1

Sunday WW1 Remembered...

I enjoy reading books set during WW1 which cover as wide a range as possible. 



In July I will share five of my favourites, some non fiction and some fiction

The Absolutist 

John Boyne

Paperback
Black Swan
2012

What's it all about...

September 1919: Twenty-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together.

But in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield and declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.

The letters, however, are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep within him. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. Whatever happens, this meeting will change his life - forever.

Here are my thoughts, written when the book was first published in hardback in 2011...

From the start of The Absolutist, I was engrossed in Tristan and Will's story, and found myself really hurrying the pages to see what happened next.

The description of the time in the trenches is poignant, desperately sad, and hugely horrific, but never without tender philosophy.I loved both characters, and wanted everything to work out for them - but like all those who fought and died in the Great war, nothing would ever be the same again.

John Boyne is a master storyteller, who manages in a few short sentences to convey a complete world, and a time and place that really exists in your subconscious, with characters that come to life, and who live on in your memory, long after the last page is turned.

Beautifully narrated with a profound sadness which has stayed with me since I first met Tristan and Will. That's why I make no excuses for featuring again this excellent WW1 novel written by an author who is, always, at the top of my favourite historical novelists.



About the Author

John Boyne is an Irish novelist born in Dublin.  He has written ten novels for adults, five for children and a collection of short stories.

~***~

My Halloween Read ~ This House is Haunted by John Boyne

Random House
Transworld
2014

Take a pinch of Jane Eyre, a snippet of Dickens, stir together with a spoonful of Wilkie Collins and mix in a whole load of classic gothic gloom and you’ll have an idea of just how good John Boyne is at expressing the darker side of Victorian life.

When Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk in the winter of 1867 she is a twenty one year old orphan; her father having recently died. Impecunious circumstances force Eliza into making the decision to relocate from London to the rather bleak environment of Gaudlin Hall where she is to be governess to Isabel and Eustace. Her arrival at the hall is fraught with danger and on meeting the children she is frighteningly aware that there are no other adults present and yet the children clearly expect her arrival. And there is no sign of her mysterious employer, the enigmatic H Bennet. From the beginning of the story , it is clear that this is a place of momentous secrets. The malevolent presence which lingers in the shadows, and which enfolds itself around Gaudlin Hall creates a realistic atmosphere of fear and as the tension racks up, you feel the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

There is no doubt, that John Boyne is a classic storyteller. His unique ability to get right into the heart and soul of his characters is evident in the way he portrays Eliza who could so easily have become a caricature of Victorian maidenly distress, but instead he makes her into a classic unstable narrator, in whose company you wonder just what’s going on, not just inside her head, but also in the way she comports herself.  The gothic gloom of the rest of the story is classic horror with a supernatural plot, an isolated and shadowy manor house and whole bucket load of secrets, all these components  help to turn This House is Haunted into a rather special spooky story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for my copy 

of 

This House is Haunted.


About the Author

*~*~*

Stunningly good.....

I have loved all of John Boyne's books - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has to be one of my all time favourite reads - so I knew, when I started this book yesterday, that I was in for real treat and, wow ....what a treat it was to read...

So, here's my review :

The Absolutist by John Boyne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

jaffa's rating 5paws - he kept very still the whole time we were reading....

From the start of The Absolutist, I was engrossed in Tristan and Will's story, and found myself really hurrying the pages to see what happened next.

The description of the time in the trenches is poignant, desperately sad, and hugely horrific, but never without tender philosophy.I loved both characters, and wanted everything to work out for them - but like all those who fought and died in the Great war, nothing would ever be the same again.

John Boyne is a master storyteller, who manages in a few short sentences to convey a complete world, and a time and place that really exists in your subconscious, with characters that come to life, and who live on in your memory, long after the last page is turned.

I stayed up long and late to finish this book, reading all 309 precious pages in a day, simply because I could not put it down. I loved every word of it , and it has to be up there in my Top Ten reads for 2011.

Read it if you can .....