A gripping, powerful tale of love and survival set against the final bitter weeks of the Nazi regime. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid.
William Ryan was called to the English bar after university in Dublin, then worked as a lawyer in the city. His crime novels The Holy Thief, The Bloody Meadow and The Twelfth Department, set in 1930s Stalinist Russia, have been shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award, the CWA New Blood Dagger, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Irish Fiction Award, and twice for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. William is married and lives in west London. The Constant Soldier is a standalone novel.
A book of great moral seriousness and a tense and grippingly
atmospheric thriller, The Constant Soldier is a brilliant evocation
of the price of redemption and the cost of guilt. An important book
but one that reads with all the panache and skill of a thriller.
Highly recommended
*Stav Sherez (author of The Devil's Playground)*
A gripping story of the struggle for humanity in the last days of
the war. Ryan makes you think, makes you feel and makes you turn
the page
*Michael Ridpath (author of Where the Shadows Lie)*
The Constant Soldier is a nuanced, complex and gripping tale of
guilt and love that captures the chaos at the end of WWII
*A.L. Kennedy (author of Costa Award Winning novel, DAY)*
The Constant Soldier is an elegant and powerful novel which sheds
light upon a bleak and lesser known period of the war... William
Ryan has conjured up both a gripping love story and thriller
*Richard Foreman (author of Warsaw)*
William Ryan writes with a simple, elegant and utterly poetic style
that just immerses you totally into the reading experience of it.
Character study, setting, plot, everything working on every level,
that is the bottom line. If that wasn't enough he's telling a
fictional story here with its basis very firmly in fact and taking
you back to a time of war, a world in turmoil, men and women living
on the edge of reason and he makes it all so real and in the moment
and so completely present that you could almost imagine it was
happening around you right now. That is not technical writing skill
that is creative genius right there . . . The story itself is
emotive, thought provoking and completely engaging first page to
last . . . The plot is taut and authentic, the descriptive prose
practically flawless
*Liz Loves Books*
The Constant Soldier is an extraordinary novel, with the intensity
and pace of a thriller, and a wisdom and subtlety all of its own. I
was gripped to the very last page
*Antonia Hodgson*
A superbly tense thriller - Ryan captures the terror and chaos of
the collapsing Nazi regime in prose that is both spare and
powerful
*Ruth Downie*
From the first chapter, The Constant Soldier is a thoroughly
engrossing, page-turning beauty of a novel. Ryan's glorious telling
of this astonishing and haunting story is memorable
*Kate Mayfield*
Ryan has written a tour de force. A chilling account of civilian
and military life amid the collapse of the Third Reich, Ryan's book
makes for compelling, even mesmerising reading. From the icy winter
wind to the bleak landscape, from the war weary SS officers and the
terrified camp prisoners to the cynical, maimed hero, Ryan's world
feels frighteningly authentic. I couldn't put it down. And as for
the final scene...well, I defy you not to shed a tear. A bloody
great read!
*Ben Kane*
Ryan has created a dark world of moral ambiguity that is both
shocking and fascinating. The Constant Soldier is a richly vivid,
gripping and sophisticated WW2 thriller
*Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Queen's Gambit*
With its intriguing set up, subtly complex characters and Ryan's
sharp eye for detail, The Constant Soldier had me enthralled from
the very first page. A beautifully crafted story that will leave
you breathless
*Jason Hewitt, author of Devastation Road*
The Constant Soldier is a gripping tale of human love enduring in
the face of terrible events, and a wartime thriller of controlled
tension and approaching menace. Beautifully written and elegantly
structured, it is a testament to the endurance and bravery of
ordinary men and women battling with the vicious tides of
history
*Lloyd Shepherd, author of The English Monster*
This is a lyrical, thoughtful book. Set towards the end of the
Second World War, it focuses on a young German anti-Nazi, who finds
himself obliged to fight for the regime. Outwardly mutilated and
scarred to the point of being unrecognisable, he is sent home,
where he strives not only to survive but, inwardly, to maintain his
identity and to expiate in some small way the burden of guilt he
feels for the things he has been obliged to witness. The restraint
in the telling makes the story all the more powerful. I found this
a truly compelling read
*Aly Monroe, author of Icelight*
This has the feel of a modern classic - it's up there with Birdsong
and Alone in Berlin as the very best of its kind. Ryan has already
proved with his excellent Korolev series, set in Soviet Russia,
that he's a master storyteller. Moving the action to a Nazi Germany
facing defeat at the end of WW2 is just as atmospheric. And in
dissident German soldier Paul Brandt - horribly disfigured on the
eastern front - Ryan has created a believable and engaging central
character for this fabulous literary thriller
*David Young, author of Stasi Child*
William Ryan has always been good but this is a real step up. Set
amid the worst horrors of World War Two, The Constant Soldier is as
nuanced a study of hope versus evil as I've read. Stunningly
impressive
*Jon Courtenay Grimwood*
It's already winning critical acclaim and has the hallmark of a
prize-winning good read'
*Irish Sunday Independent*
The Constant Soldier is a thrilling and meticulously researched
novel that viscerally evokes the social and moral chaos of the last
days of Hitler's Germany.
*Ben Fergusson, author of The Spring of Kasper Meier*
Powerful, engaging and peopled with believable characters, this
atmospheric thriller grips from start to finish
*Choice*
Gripping . . . Ryan's elegant, powerful prose does justice to his
difficult subject matter. The Constant Soldier has the pace of a
thriller with characters and themes that are nuanced and subtle
*The Times*
This is a terrific novel: a tough-minded, morally probing thriller
that only gains in pace, depth and authority as it goes along
*Telegraph*
Elegiac, haunting, passionate, William Ryan’s The Constant Soldier
is a subtle WW2 thriller of horror and love with an utterly
gripping countdown to Gotterdamerung. One of my favourites of the
year
*Simon Sebag Montefiore*
[A] tense and subtle thriller . . . A masterpiece of emphatic
imagination and storytelling flair
*BBC History Magazine*
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