The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel

The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel

Hardcover
4.77

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Beschreibung

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

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.
Haupt-Genre
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Sub-Genre
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Format
Hardcover
Seitenzahl
336
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Beiträge

3
Alle
4.5

Nach einer langen Flaute mal wieder ein wunderbares Buch! Eine (Geister-)Geschichte im Ersten Weltkrieg. Sehr gefühlvoll geschrieben und mit nahezu atmenden Figuren besetzt. Es geht mehr darum einen verschollenen Soldaten wieder zu finden, als um schaurigen Grusel. Denn die Geister haben warme Hände und führen dich in Sicherheit, wenn du an sie glaubst und danach fragst. Ein wirklich schönes und lesenswertes Buch. Bisher ist es glaub ich noch nicht auf Deutsch erschienen, aber bei der bekannten Autorin muss man vermutlich nur etwas warten.

4

In diesem Buch lässt Katherine Arden die Schrecken des Ersten Weltkrieges wieder auferstehen. Es ist ein berührendes Buch, aber auch ein entsetzliches. Die Geister begleiten uns, lebende wie auch tote. Der Geist der Geschichte folgt uns noch immer. Auch wenn ich Freddies Kapitel ein wenig lieber las als Lauras, so war ich (als Einzelkind aufgewachsen) doch sehr bewegt von der Liebe, die die Geschwister verbindet. Faland ist faszinierend und erschreckend sogleich - die Art von Figur, die Arden enorm gut beherrscht. Und so lesen wir hier eine Geistergeschichte, die Horror ist, aber auch gefühlvoll. Entsetzlich, aber auch schön.

5

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" is about a pair of orphan siblings during WW1. Laura is a retired nurse, struggling to cope with their parents' death. When she gets cryptic information about her brother being missing, but possibly still alive, she sets off back to the war to help out in a private field hospital and find him. Freddie is a soldier that a bomb has buried together with an enemy soldier. They need each other's help to survive and come to like each other in the process. This book has a strong sibling relationship, the real horrors and realities of this real war, the supernatural as ghosts and eldritch beings perfectly fitted to this setting, and a light sprinkling of romance. I very much enjoyed the strong thread of care the siblings had for each other that wove through the whole of the story, even when they got closer to other people as well. I liked the cast of characters that Laura met throughout the story, although not all likeable. They painted a detailed picture of the power dynamics and contrasts at play during the war. I expected more ghosts, to be honest, but this book was more magical realism than historical fantasy, which fit well with the war, and didn't take away from the depictions of the very human horrors of that war. It's just something slightly off, something out of place in the rest of these characters' mostly rational lives, but made more plausible by the situation they find themselves in. 5 stars. Would recommend.

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