André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your NameĪ new edition of the beloved novel most similar thematically to the author's mega-bestseller The Heart's Invisible Furies (Boyne is also very, very good at historical fiction The Absolutist begins in September 1919.) But the young soldier, who is twenty-one, has something to confess this is a forbidden love story, a gay love story, but one with a terrible twist.Description 'A moving and deeply felt tribute to a love that dared to speak its name. We presume that the worst of what has happened is what we already know or have imagined of those trenches in northern France. The Absolutist is one of those great stories that is not what it first seems, though what the story appears to be is a powerful enough premise to begin any novel: a young soldier, returning from World War One, is traveling from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to the grieving sister of a fallen comrade. His latest, The Absolutist, is a novel of immeasurable sadness, in a league with Graham Greene's The End of the Affair and a no less masterful handling of the first-person narrative voice than Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table.īoyne is very, very good at portraying the destructive power of a painfully kept secret -not to mention the damage done by the self-recriminations (and other condemnations) that are released when that secret is revealed. I became an admirer of John Boyne’s writing with his first novel, The Thief of Time. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they've turned the last page. The Absolutist is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will-from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it.

It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War.īut the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit.

John Boyne is very, very good at portraying the destructive power of a painfully kept secret.”Ī masterfully told tale of passion, jealousy, heroism and betrayal set in the gruesome trenches of World War I. “A novel of immeasurable sadness, in a league with Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.

The absolutist