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Four Soldiers

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize

"Its simplicity lends it grandeur. One thinks of Maxim Gorky, or even the early sketches of Tolstoy."
The Wall Street Journal
"A small miracle of a book, perfectly imagined and perfectly achieved."
—Hilary Mantel, author of Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies
A novel of war, revolution, youth, and friendship by the "remarkable" (Ian McEwan) French author of A Meal in Winter

Hubert Mingarelli's simple, powerful, and moving stories of men in combat have established him as one of the most exciting new voices in international fiction.

In Four Soldiers he tells the story of four young soldiers in 1919, members of the Red Army during the Russian civil war. It is set in the harsh dead of winter, just as the soldiers set up camp in a forest in Galicia near the Romanian front line. Due to a lull in fighting, their days are taken up with the mundane tasks of trying to scratch together what food and comforts they can find, all the time while talking, smoking, and waiting. Waiting specifically for spring to come. Waiting for their battalion to move on. Waiting for the inevitable resumption of violence.

Recalling great works like Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Four Soldiers is a timeless and tender story of young male friendships and the small, idyllic moments of happiness that can illuminate the darkness of war.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 13, 2018
      Mingarelli’s tepid novel (after A Meal in Winter), set in the hard winter of 1919 during the Russian Civil War, follows four young, illiterate Red Army soldiers on the Galician front. Benia narrates the story, as the men—himself, Pavel, Kyabine, and Sifra—build winter quarters in the forest and spend their days gambling, sleeping, foraging for food, and staying warm. Mingarelli devotes most of the story to the soldiers’ dull days and nights, effectively describing their friendship, which is expressed cleverly in their peculiar nighttime sharing of a broken pocket watch with a woman’s picture inside. When spring comes, their battalion marches into battle, a forlorn affair with a sudden conclusion. Mingarelli’s portrayal of simple men waiting for combat is authentic, but readers may be disappointed by the glacial pace and static story. This will appeal more to those interested in the psychological effects of war’s downtime than those hoping for an action-packed story.

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  • English

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