The Absolutist
A Novel by the Author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
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4.2 • 136 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“A moving and deeply felt tribute to a love that dared to speak its name." —André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
A new edition of the beloved novel most similar thematically to the author’s mega-bestseller The Heart’s Invisible Furies
It is September 1919, and 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.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan’s visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As he 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. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain.
The Absolutist is a masterful, unforgettable tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Boyne's new novel documents the lives of two inseparable men navigating the trenches of WWI and the ramifications of a taboo involvement. The emotive wartime saga is narrated by Tristan Sadler, a soldier en route to visit his dead comrade Will Bancroft's older sister Marian in Norwich, England, a few years after serving in the Great War. The story oscillates between Sadler's trip in 1919 to return Will's letters to Marian, and recollections of wartime, including a forbidden and fleeting homosexual affair with Bancroft, depicted by Boyne with the same polite, properly delicate prose that permeates the book. Bancroft is the self-declared "absolutist" of the title, objecting not only to fighting, but to doing anything at all that would "further the war effort." Sadler's feelings for Bancroft bring him shame amid the horrors of battle, eventually making an absolutist of Sadler as well. When the young Sadler confides the details of his time with Bancroft to Marian, she rejects him, a reaction echoed 60 years later, by which time Sadler has come into his own as a literary sensation. Once again he braves Marian's disapproval, inciting a final heartbreak. A relentlessly tragic yet beautifully crafted novel from Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas).
Customer Reviews
The absolutist
Great book!
Great Read
I thought this was a great book. It was a easy, quick read. I didn't have any download problems like some other people mentioned.
Best!
One of
The best books of this decade!!!