A review by ontheoffbeat
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

In the final year of World War 1, a field nurse returns to the war front in Belgium to search for her missing brother who is presumed dead. In another timeline, two soldiers from opposite sides encounter a mysterious fiddler and his glamorous hotel, seemingly untouched by the bloodshed happening outside. Katherine Arden returns to adult fantasy with an evocative, haunting book about two siblings in the midst of one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Through the eyes of the characters we see the trenches as the man made hell they were, a hell where the devil himself seems innocuous. Historical details, religious motifs and moral questions all contribute to this question that was threaded into the narrative, who will be by your side when the world ends?

Thank you Katherine for lending me the bound manuscript to read.
The Warm Hands of Ghost will be available in the U.S. on February 13, 2024.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Medical content, and Violence