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The Winter Soldier

Description:

The epic story of war and medicine from the award-winning author of North Woods and The Piano Tuner is "a dream of a novel...part mystery, part war story, part romance" (Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See). 

Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. But when he arrives, at a commandeered church tucked away high in a remote valley of the Carpathian Mountains, he finds a freezing outpost ravaged by typhus. The other doctors have fled, and only a single, mysterious nurse named Sister Margarete remains.

But Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel. And as the war rages across the winter landscape, he finds himself falling in love with the woman from whom he must learn a brutal, makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow, his uniform stuffed with strange drawings. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient, and nurse forever.

From the gilded ballrooms of Imperial Vienna to the frozen forests of the Eastern Front; from hardscrabble operating rooms to battlefields thundering with Cossack cavalry, The Winter Soldier is the story of war and medicine, of family, of finding love in the sweeping tides of history, and finally, of the mistakes we make, and the precious opportunities to atone.

"The Winter Soldier brims with improbable narrative pleasures...These pages crackle with excitement... A spectacular success." —Anthony Marra, New York Times Book Review
Read more

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The beauty of The Winter Soldier persists even through scenes of unspeakable agony. That tension reflects the span of Daniel Mason's talent. As a writer, he knows how to capture the grace of a moment; as a doctor, he knows how wrong things can go...The Winter Soldier draws us into the deadly undertow of history that swept away so many in the early twentieth century. The redemption the story ultimately offers is equally unlikely and gorgeous, painfully limited but gratefully received in a world thrown into chaos."―Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Not only does Mason make every crumb of pertinent history, culture, and geography so real throughout this saga that a reader feels instantly teleported into all of it but The Winter Soldier delivers, in shocking detail, a relentless inventory of the era's medical knowledge and practices...The novel's pacing clips along tightly; its closure, when at last it comes, proves deeply, memorably moving...One is reminded of a dozen greats: Doctor Zhivago, The English Patient, For Whom the Bell Tolls."―Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle

"Extraordinary."―Isabel Allende, The Guardian

"The Winter Soldier held me by the throat from the first lyrical page to the last. A story which manages to be as original as it is timeless, and above all, credible."―Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room

"Timeless...The Winter Soldier brims with improbable narrative pleasures...Within the meticulously researched and magnificently realized backdrop of European dissolution, Mason finds his few lost souls, and shepherds them toward an elusive peace. Lucius's 'dream of being able to see another person's thinking' is not only the controlling metaphor of The Winter Soldier but the work of literature more broadly."―Anthony Marra, New York Times

"Captivating...Early passages describing the hospital, its various characters, and the education that Lucius receives there--both medical and romantic--are among the many marvels of The Winter Soldier...It does what all the best novels do: creates a world in which readers pleasurably lose themselves."―Tom Beer, Newsday

"This is a great war novel, plunging you into the chaos of conflict and the unexpected consequences of a love that begins amid that chaos."―Lynn Neary, NPR (Best Books of 2018)

"Can it be that this novel is too interesting? Too well constructed? Too filled with humanity, depth, arcane facts, and matters of life and death? Is it just too perfect a book? Everyone I have pushed to read this book says yes. Please judge for yourself if this isn't one of the most satisfying novels you have ever encountered."―Louise Erdrich, author of Future Home of the Living God and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner LaRose

"A uniquely compelling read...With a physician's precision and an artist's eye, author Daniel Mason captures the emotional and physical upheaval wrought by war. Right from the start, the novel thrums with tension, whisking the reader into the fray."―Melissa Brown, Bookpage

"I have been a Daniel Mason fan since The Piano Tuner. His abilities as a storyteller and a writer of the most gorgeous prose leave you wanting more. The Winter Soldier is a tour de force."―Abraham Verghese, bestselling author of Cutting for Stone

"Most remarkable about Mason's fiction is the quality of his revelations, his ability to unveil temperaments, habits, natures...Margarete is the heart of the book, a gloriously real creation...What unfolds is a kind of parable of what it means to sit with suffering, to charm it, to bear it, the novel performing the limits of a doctor's cure."―Wyatt Mason, New York Times Magazine

"So real, so rich and detailed, that the room in which I was reading vanished. I was transported to a lost world of the past. Suspenseful, thrilling, aching with emotion. Living with Lucius and Margarete--it was the First World War as I have never felt it."―Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

"A remarkable example of how a skilled writer can turn a dusty premise into a story bursting with vivid life...Mason's prose, however, flows like clear water, leaving us moved by these star-crossed lovers, and by the soldiers 'who seemed forever stuck in their eternal winters.'"―Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

"In the tradition of Cold Mountain and Doctor Zhivago, Daniel Mason's new novel is a gloriously gripping story of love, war, and the marvel of human endurance. Sweeping yet intimate, brutal yet tender, it kept me up, it broke my heart, and it made me remember yet again just how a good book--a really good book--rekindles our love of life."―Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of Three Junes and A House Among the Trees

"In Mason's powerful tale of individuals caught up in world-changing events, Lucius's search for his lost love also becomes a journey towards some kind of redemption from the horrors he has witnessed."―Sunday Times (London)

"One of the most beautifully written examples of historical fiction I've ever read: the details, the authenticity, and the clarity are remarkable. Every image is jaw-droppingly vivid...I was reminded, in all the best ways, of The English Patient and Doctor Zhivago."―Chris Bohjalian, author of The Flight Attendant

"Breathtaking and evocative...The Winter Soldier weaves a spellbinding story that draws you into another world from the very first page...Few stories handle the human cost of war as delicately and perceptively...Read it. It's a bravura performance."―Poornima Apte, Bookbrowse

"In The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason achieves a deeply affecting balancing act, drawing us into the crushing agony of war while simultaneously stirring our hearts with an inspired and touching love story."―Georgia Hunter, bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones

"Utterly convincing and written with a lyricism that belies the horrors it so unflinchingly describes, this is both a moving love story and a profound portrayal of war's physical and psychological effects on survivors."―Mail on Sunday (UK)

"A sweeping story of love found and lost, steeped in medical details that reveal the full horrors that ill-equipped doctors and nurses faced over years of vicious trench warfare, The Winter Soldier is a vivid account of one man caught up in the epic forces of war, who desperately fights against the tides of change in search of redemption."―Booklist

"Enthralled by the setting, the characters, and the language, I was held captive by this remarkable historical novel."―Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky

"A moving historical novel...Mason's old-fashioned novel delivers a sweeping yet intimate account of WWI, and in Lucius, the author has created an outstanding protagonist."―Publishers Weekly

"The Winter Soldier is beautifully, elegantly written, Mason's prose pitched at a level where it feels rich and lustrous but at the same time transparent and devoid of pomposity. Constantly carrying the reader forward, it's a novel to get lost in, one you can look up from and find that hours have passed."―Alastair Mabbott, The Herald (Scotland)

"Daniel Mason, a forty-two-year-old practicing psychiatrist, has quietly emerged as one of the finest prose stylists in American fiction--bringing a clinician's mind to the construction of interior worlds."―New York Times Magazine

About the Author

Daniel Mason is the author of the collection A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the California Book Award, and three novels, including The Winter Soldier and The Piano Tuner.  His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages and awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize for Fiction, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.  He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is an assistant professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry.

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it. Mason is an amazing writer.

T.J.B. · September 20, 2020

Daniel Mason's THE WINTER SOLDIER is easily one of the best, most compelling, character-driven, historical, LITERARY novels I have read in a long time. It caught me up with its WWI story of young Viennese med student, Lucius, who enlists as a 'medical lieutenant' and is thrust into service as a doctor for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a remote field hospital in the Carpathian mountains, where he falls in love with a mysterious nursing sister, Margarete.I read - and also loved - Mason's THE PIANO TUNER fifteen or more years ago, so expected this one to be good too. In fact I think it's even better. The ' winter soldier ' of the title is, firstly, one Jozsef Horvath, found beneath a pile of frozen bodies, barely alive and severely traumatized, unable to speak or move. Nursed back to the edge of normalcy by Lucius and Margarete, he suffers a grisly and brutal setback at the hands of a sadistic officer. Enough said; you have to read the atory. But the 'winter soldier' could be many others here too, especially Lucius himself, who is separated from Margarete in the heat of a battle with Russian Cossack cavalry, and then tried to find her for the next two years. He is also plagued by vivid nightmares and other symptoms of what we now call PTSD.The post-war part of the book, as Lucius goes back to search for Margarete, is reminiscent of The Oddysey, with his many adventures and dangerous encounters, but, even more so, of another more obscure, beautifully written novel I read a few years back, also about WWI and eastern Europe, Andrew Krivak's THE SOJOURN.I also was intrigued that Daniel Mason is a doctor, a practicing psychiatrist and professor of medicine, and I thought of other doctor-writers I have read and admired - Abraham Verghese (CUTTING FOR STONE), Ethan Canin (author of several fictional works and on faculty at the Iowa Writers Workshop), and, of course, the late Michael Crichton, who penned numerous bestsellers.I absolutely loved THE WINTER SOLDIER. Daniel Mason is an extraordinarily gifted and talented writer. My very highest recommendation.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

4.0 out of 5 stars Drama on the Eastern Front

P.M. · August 27, 2019

Lucius is a neurological medical student in Vienna when WWI breaks out in 1914. He volunteers as a doctor in the Austro-Hungarian army. With little experience as a doctor, and with no experience in dealing with the type of traumatic injuries caused in war, he is nevertheless assigned to a remote medical outpost in the Carpathian Mountains on the Eastern front. It is, to say the least, a daunting task, with limited medical supplies, crumbling infrastructure, lice, and the daily influx of wounded men.His savior is Sister Margarete, who patiently shows him what needs to be done, including how to saw off legs and arms, tasks they must perform often. Over time, he begins to find he has feelings for Sister Margarete and their relationship becomes a significant part of the plot. They then become separated, and when the war finally ends, he must search for her.This is the plot of this well-researched, captivating novel by Daniel Mason. It works for several reasons. First is the setting. It takes place in central Europe--the Europe of Hungary and Austria and Poland—and takes place more than a hundred years ago. This is the kind of thing that contemporary Americans are not familiar with, and to be immersed in it is fascinating. Mr. Mason seemingly gets it right.The characters are well-drawn as well. Lucius is not just an average medical student, he is enthralled by medicine. Mr. Mason gives us a thorough overview of his studies, the practice of medicine at the time, his fellow students and professors, and in general, his way of life in this long-ago period. It may not sound as interesting as being in the battlefield of WWI, but it is, and again, Mr. Mason shows a thorough knowledge of his subject matter. The other characters are also well done.The Winter Soldier of the title turns out to be a soldier who is brought to their field hospital in a state of catatonia. Lucius finally has a patient with a neurological problem he can work with and is thrilled to take it upon himself to cure this man. His efforts do not end successfully, and Lucius is tormented by this.As mentioned, the novel is well-written and flows well, but if there is a flaw, it is that it starts to drag a bit after all of the main characters are separated. Lucius must return to Vienna, still under orders. He must deal with his family and their wishes for him, and other issues, such as his future, all the while feeling despair over his experience with the Winter Soldier. It takes an awful long time to begin his search for Margarete, and his search maybe goes on a little but too long, too.But it does end, and ends satisfactorily, but perhaps one might find oneself yearning for more of an emotional wallop. Nevertheless, a fine, thoughtful exercise.

5.0 out of 5 stars Memento Mori: A Superb Saga of WWI

a. · October 11, 2018

Lucius Krelewski begins his medical training in Vienna, not so much to be a healer, as to continue his passion for the study of science. In the middle of his training, WWI begins. With patriotic fervor, he enlists in the Austrian medical corps. Having barely touched any patients during his training, Lucius is sent to a remote medical outpost in the Carpathian Mountains. Here he learns both the art and craft of medicine, the tenderness of love and the barbarity of war. He encounters and is intrigued by what is now called PTSD which plagues so many of his patients. Post war, Lucius too struggles with nightmares.Mason writes a filigree of prose that borders on poetry. The reader is firmly in place in the beauty of the setting and the emotional depth of the characters. Battle scenarios are frightening in their ferocity. The anguish of Lucius and his patients is palpable. In the end, he goes on a personal odyssey to regain his love, his life and his soul. As in his novel, The Piano Tuner, Mason proves to be a master wordsmith. He creates a very human story that resonates long after the last page.

The best I have read this year

B. · June 27, 2022

This wouldn't be a book I would have immediately picked up but I am really glad I did. This is the best book I have read this year.The story is very simple, boy meets girl, boy and girl part and then ....... I don't think finds girl would be quite right but perhaps both find redemption and themselves. So far so straight forward but the background of fin de siècle Vienna prior to the outbreak of World War 1, a hospital clearing station, a part of the first war I knew very little about just shines out of the book and makes me want to visit the areas mentioned. The last time a book did that was Perfume. Background then is superb, characters are believable and well drawn (I especially liked the Mother of the hero Lucious) and apart from possibly one plot twist too many it all rolls along very well.What elevates it from good to great is the writing. The descriptive passages reminded me of Cider With Rosie and the way he writes about the fecundity of land once scarred by war and now returning to nature and productivity was not only beautiful but also an element of the plot. It echoed the journey of Lucious as he too had to return to a productive life, even though echoes of the past would remain. Just as trenches, bodies and discarded equipment remain in the land from the war.On completing Winter Soldier I did two things I seldom do. First I started reading it again, slower this time to draw out the real beauty of the writing and to savour the characters. Second I went on to Bolo and ordered every other book this author has written. The first arrived yesterday so well done Bolo for quick delivery.Finally and hopefully I want to know more about Lucious. I want to know what happens next, how he survives the 20's and 30's and where. This is too good a character to let slip.

Well Written and Addictive

L.W. · October 25, 2024

I very much enjoyed this book. Excellent writing, in-depth characters, authentic action and a very human story. Highly recommend.

The coldness and warmth of the human soul

S.S. · April 27, 2022

I’d almost begun to think that novels of this quality were no longer being written. “The Winter Soldier” is a story, time and place to lose yourself in, elegantly written and utterly compelling, without resorting to any attempt to show off the author’s cleverness or manipulate the reader.The setting is slightly unusual for a 1st World War novel written in English, as it focusses on the Austro-Hungarian empire in its last throes, rather than the more typical setting of the Western front. Of course, many of the places mentioned have become household names in recent weeks, adding a particular poignancy to the story. Will humankind never learn?The writing is grown-up, brutality is described but not lingered on unecessarily. There is much psychological depth as the main character experiences guilt, regret, yearning and the development of self-knowledge. Like his medical student protagonist, the author clearly has “an unusual aptitude for the perception of things beneath the skin.” The sense of place is perfect, from the villages in the mountains of Galicia, to the opulence of Imperial Vienna, to the medicine faculties of early 20th century universities.The characters come alive on the pages: the resourceful, bossy, rifle-wielding nurse Margarete and the student Lucius - from a wealthy family, but an eternal misfit, whose brilliant yet conflicted mind is often at odds with his actions.I read the Kindle version of the book, which I can recommend as there were plenty of unfamiliar words that needed looking up. Unfortunately the map isn’t clear on Kindle, but it’s not too much trouble to do a little extra research on the history and geography of this area of Central Europe with its ever-changing boundaries.

O soldado de nosso inverno.

C.A. · June 19, 2025

Uma das grandes obras de Daniel Mason.Pungente e com uma realidade cênica apaixonante.

Excellent

n.b. · May 14, 2024

Daniel Mason's The Winter Soldier is a great novel, enjoyable at different levels of profundity. It is a cracking yarn; it is a portrait of the moribund Habsburg Empire; and it seems to be making a point about how the individual is at the mercy of great events like war. In this sense perhaps it is a comment on Kafka and the helplessness of individual volition. It is the best novel which I have read for years.

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The Winter Soldier

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Visit the Back Bay Books Store

The Winter Soldier

Product ID: U0316477591
Condition: New

4.4

The Winter Soldier-0
Type: Paperback

AED10590

Price includes VAT & Import Duties
Availability: In Stock

Quantity:

|

Order today to get by 7-14 business days

Delivery fee of AED 20. Free for orders above AED 200.

Returns & Warranty policies

Imported From: United States

At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.

BOLO is not an authorized or official retailer for most brands, nor are we affiliated with manufacturers unless specifically stated on a product page. Instead, we source verified sellers, authorized distributors or directly from the manufacturer.

Each product undergoes thorough inspection and verification at our consolidation and fulfilment centers to ensure it meets our strict authenticity and quality standards before being shipped and delivered to you.

If you ever have concerns regarding the authenticity of a product purchased from us, please contact Bolo Support. We will review your inquiry promptly and, if necessary, provide documentation verifying authenticity or offer a suitable resolution.

Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.

All product information, images, descriptions, and reviews originate from the manufacturer or from trusted sellers overseas. BOLO is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized retailer for most brands listed on our website unless stated otherwise.

While we strive to display accurate information, variations in packaging, labeling, instructions, or formulation may occasionally occur due to regional differences or supplier updates. For detailed or manufacturer-specific information, please contact the brand directly or reach out to BOLO Support for assistance.

Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.

BOLO operates in accordance with the laws and regulations of United Arab Emirates. Any items found to be restricted or prohibited for sale within the UAE will be cancelled prior to shipment. We take proactive measures to ensure that only products permitted for sale in United Arab Emirates are listed on our website.

All items are shipped by air, and any products classified as “Dangerous Goods (DG)” under IATA regulations will be removed from the order and cancelled.

All orders are processed manually, and we make every effort to process them promptly once confirmed. Products cancelled due to the above reasons will be permanently removed from listings across the website.

Description:

The epic story of war and medicine from the award-winning author of North Woods and The Piano Tuner is "a dream of a novel...part mystery, part war story, part romance" (Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See). 

Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. But when he arrives, at a commandeered church tucked away high in a remote valley of the Carpathian Mountains, he finds a freezing outpost ravaged by typhus. The other doctors have fled, and only a single, mysterious nurse named Sister Margarete remains.

But Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel. And as the war rages across the winter landscape, he finds himself falling in love with the woman from whom he must learn a brutal, makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow, his uniform stuffed with strange drawings. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient, and nurse forever.

From the gilded ballrooms of Imperial Vienna to the frozen forests of the Eastern Front; from hardscrabble operating rooms to battlefields thundering with Cossack cavalry, The Winter Soldier is the story of war and medicine, of family, of finding love in the sweeping tides of history, and finally, of the mistakes we make, and the precious opportunities to atone.

"The Winter Soldier brims with improbable narrative pleasures...These pages crackle with excitement... A spectacular success." —Anthony Marra, New York Times Book Review
Read more

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The beauty of The Winter Soldier persists even through scenes of unspeakable agony. That tension reflects the span of Daniel Mason's talent. As a writer, he knows how to capture the grace of a moment; as a doctor, he knows how wrong things can go...The Winter Soldier draws us into the deadly undertow of history that swept away so many in the early twentieth century. The redemption the story ultimately offers is equally unlikely and gorgeous, painfully limited but gratefully received in a world thrown into chaos."―Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Not only does Mason make every crumb of pertinent history, culture, and geography so real throughout this saga that a reader feels instantly teleported into all of it but The Winter Soldier delivers, in shocking detail, a relentless inventory of the era's medical knowledge and practices...The novel's pacing clips along tightly; its closure, when at last it comes, proves deeply, memorably moving...One is reminded of a dozen greats: Doctor Zhivago, The English Patient, For Whom the Bell Tolls."―Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle

"Extraordinary."―Isabel Allende, The Guardian

"The Winter Soldier held me by the throat from the first lyrical page to the last. A story which manages to be as original as it is timeless, and above all, credible."―Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room

"Timeless...The Winter Soldier brims with improbable narrative pleasures...Within the meticulously researched and magnificently realized backdrop of European dissolution, Mason finds his few lost souls, and shepherds them toward an elusive peace. Lucius's 'dream of being able to see another person's thinking' is not only the controlling metaphor of The Winter Soldier but the work of literature more broadly."―Anthony Marra, New York Times

"Captivating...Early passages describing the hospital, its various characters, and the education that Lucius receives there--both medical and romantic--are among the many marvels of The Winter Soldier...It does what all the best novels do: creates a world in which readers pleasurably lose themselves."―Tom Beer, Newsday

"This is a great war novel, plunging you into the chaos of conflict and the unexpected consequences of a love that begins amid that chaos."―Lynn Neary, NPR (Best Books of 2018)

"Can it be that this novel is too interesting? Too well constructed? Too filled with humanity, depth, arcane facts, and matters of life and death? Is it just too perfect a book? Everyone I have pushed to read this book says yes. Please judge for yourself if this isn't one of the most satisfying novels you have ever encountered."―Louise Erdrich, author of Future Home of the Living God and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner LaRose

"A uniquely compelling read...With a physician's precision and an artist's eye, author Daniel Mason captures the emotional and physical upheaval wrought by war. Right from the start, the novel thrums with tension, whisking the reader into the fray."―Melissa Brown, Bookpage

"I have been a Daniel Mason fan since The Piano Tuner. His abilities as a storyteller and a writer of the most gorgeous prose leave you wanting more. The Winter Soldier is a tour de force."―Abraham Verghese, bestselling author of Cutting for Stone

"Most remarkable about Mason's fiction is the quality of his revelations, his ability to unveil temperaments, habits, natures...Margarete is the heart of the book, a gloriously real creation...What unfolds is a kind of parable of what it means to sit with suffering, to charm it, to bear it, the novel performing the limits of a doctor's cure."―Wyatt Mason, New York Times Magazine

"So real, so rich and detailed, that the room in which I was reading vanished. I was transported to a lost world of the past. Suspenseful, thrilling, aching with emotion. Living with Lucius and Margarete--it was the First World War as I have never felt it."―Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

"A remarkable example of how a skilled writer can turn a dusty premise into a story bursting with vivid life...Mason's prose, however, flows like clear water, leaving us moved by these star-crossed lovers, and by the soldiers 'who seemed forever stuck in their eternal winters.'"―Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

"In the tradition of Cold Mountain and Doctor Zhivago, Daniel Mason's new novel is a gloriously gripping story of love, war, and the marvel of human endurance. Sweeping yet intimate, brutal yet tender, it kept me up, it broke my heart, and it made me remember yet again just how a good book--a really good book--rekindles our love of life."―Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of Three Junes and A House Among the Trees

"In Mason's powerful tale of individuals caught up in world-changing events, Lucius's search for his lost love also becomes a journey towards some kind of redemption from the horrors he has witnessed."―Sunday Times (London)

"One of the most beautifully written examples of historical fiction I've ever read: the details, the authenticity, and the clarity are remarkable. Every image is jaw-droppingly vivid...I was reminded, in all the best ways, of The English Patient and Doctor Zhivago."―Chris Bohjalian, author of The Flight Attendant

"Breathtaking and evocative...The Winter Soldier weaves a spellbinding story that draws you into another world from the very first page...Few stories handle the human cost of war as delicately and perceptively...Read it. It's a bravura performance."―Poornima Apte, Bookbrowse

"In The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason achieves a deeply affecting balancing act, drawing us into the crushing agony of war while simultaneously stirring our hearts with an inspired and touching love story."―Georgia Hunter, bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones

"Utterly convincing and written with a lyricism that belies the horrors it so unflinchingly describes, this is both a moving love story and a profound portrayal of war's physical and psychological effects on survivors."―Mail on Sunday (UK)

"A sweeping story of love found and lost, steeped in medical details that reveal the full horrors that ill-equipped doctors and nurses faced over years of vicious trench warfare, The Winter Soldier is a vivid account of one man caught up in the epic forces of war, who desperately fights against the tides of change in search of redemption."―Booklist

"Enthralled by the setting, the characters, and the language, I was held captive by this remarkable historical novel."―Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky

"A moving historical novel...Mason's old-fashioned novel delivers a sweeping yet intimate account of WWI, and in Lucius, the author has created an outstanding protagonist."―Publishers Weekly

"The Winter Soldier is beautifully, elegantly written, Mason's prose pitched at a level where it feels rich and lustrous but at the same time transparent and devoid of pomposity. Constantly carrying the reader forward, it's a novel to get lost in, one you can look up from and find that hours have passed."―Alastair Mabbott, The Herald (Scotland)

"Daniel Mason, a forty-two-year-old practicing psychiatrist, has quietly emerged as one of the finest prose stylists in American fiction--bringing a clinician's mind to the construction of interior worlds."―New York Times Magazine

About the Author

Daniel Mason is the author of the collection A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the California Book Award, and three novels, including The Winter Soldier and The Piano Tuner.  His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages and awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize for Fiction, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.  He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is an assistant professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry.

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it. Mason is an amazing writer.

T.J.B. · September 20, 2020

Daniel Mason's THE WINTER SOLDIER is easily one of the best, most compelling, character-driven, historical, LITERARY novels I have read in a long time. It caught me up with its WWI story of young Viennese med student, Lucius, who enlists as a 'medical lieutenant' and is thrust into service as a doctor for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a remote field hospital in the Carpathian mountains, where he falls in love with a mysterious nursing sister, Margarete.I read - and also loved - Mason's THE PIANO TUNER fifteen or more years ago, so expected this one to be good too. In fact I think it's even better. The ' winter soldier ' of the title is, firstly, one Jozsef Horvath, found beneath a pile of frozen bodies, barely alive and severely traumatized, unable to speak or move. Nursed back to the edge of normalcy by Lucius and Margarete, he suffers a grisly and brutal setback at the hands of a sadistic officer. Enough said; you have to read the atory. But the 'winter soldier' could be many others here too, especially Lucius himself, who is separated from Margarete in the heat of a battle with Russian Cossack cavalry, and then tried to find her for the next two years. He is also plagued by vivid nightmares and other symptoms of what we now call PTSD.The post-war part of the book, as Lucius goes back to search for Margarete, is reminiscent of The Oddysey, with his many adventures and dangerous encounters, but, even more so, of another more obscure, beautifully written novel I read a few years back, also about WWI and eastern Europe, Andrew Krivak's THE SOJOURN.I also was intrigued that Daniel Mason is a doctor, a practicing psychiatrist and professor of medicine, and I thought of other doctor-writers I have read and admired - Abraham Verghese (CUTTING FOR STONE), Ethan Canin (author of several fictional works and on faculty at the Iowa Writers Workshop), and, of course, the late Michael Crichton, who penned numerous bestsellers.I absolutely loved THE WINTER SOLDIER. Daniel Mason is an extraordinarily gifted and talented writer. My very highest recommendation.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

4.0 out of 5 stars Drama on the Eastern Front

P.M. · August 27, 2019

Lucius is a neurological medical student in Vienna when WWI breaks out in 1914. He volunteers as a doctor in the Austro-Hungarian army. With little experience as a doctor, and with no experience in dealing with the type of traumatic injuries caused in war, he is nevertheless assigned to a remote medical outpost in the Carpathian Mountains on the Eastern front. It is, to say the least, a daunting task, with limited medical supplies, crumbling infrastructure, lice, and the daily influx of wounded men.His savior is Sister Margarete, who patiently shows him what needs to be done, including how to saw off legs and arms, tasks they must perform often. Over time, he begins to find he has feelings for Sister Margarete and their relationship becomes a significant part of the plot. They then become separated, and when the war finally ends, he must search for her.This is the plot of this well-researched, captivating novel by Daniel Mason. It works for several reasons. First is the setting. It takes place in central Europe--the Europe of Hungary and Austria and Poland—and takes place more than a hundred years ago. This is the kind of thing that contemporary Americans are not familiar with, and to be immersed in it is fascinating. Mr. Mason seemingly gets it right.The characters are well-drawn as well. Lucius is not just an average medical student, he is enthralled by medicine. Mr. Mason gives us a thorough overview of his studies, the practice of medicine at the time, his fellow students and professors, and in general, his way of life in this long-ago period. It may not sound as interesting as being in the battlefield of WWI, but it is, and again, Mr. Mason shows a thorough knowledge of his subject matter. The other characters are also well done.The Winter Soldier of the title turns out to be a soldier who is brought to their field hospital in a state of catatonia. Lucius finally has a patient with a neurological problem he can work with and is thrilled to take it upon himself to cure this man. His efforts do not end successfully, and Lucius is tormented by this.As mentioned, the novel is well-written and flows well, but if there is a flaw, it is that it starts to drag a bit after all of the main characters are separated. Lucius must return to Vienna, still under orders. He must deal with his family and their wishes for him, and other issues, such as his future, all the while feeling despair over his experience with the Winter Soldier. It takes an awful long time to begin his search for Margarete, and his search maybe goes on a little but too long, too.But it does end, and ends satisfactorily, but perhaps one might find oneself yearning for more of an emotional wallop. Nevertheless, a fine, thoughtful exercise.

5.0 out of 5 stars Memento Mori: A Superb Saga of WWI

a. · October 11, 2018

Lucius Krelewski begins his medical training in Vienna, not so much to be a healer, as to continue his passion for the study of science. In the middle of his training, WWI begins. With patriotic fervor, he enlists in the Austrian medical corps. Having barely touched any patients during his training, Lucius is sent to a remote medical outpost in the Carpathian Mountains. Here he learns both the art and craft of medicine, the tenderness of love and the barbarity of war. He encounters and is intrigued by what is now called PTSD which plagues so many of his patients. Post war, Lucius too struggles with nightmares.Mason writes a filigree of prose that borders on poetry. The reader is firmly in place in the beauty of the setting and the emotional depth of the characters. Battle scenarios are frightening in their ferocity. The anguish of Lucius and his patients is palpable. In the end, he goes on a personal odyssey to regain his love, his life and his soul. As in his novel, The Piano Tuner, Mason proves to be a master wordsmith. He creates a very human story that resonates long after the last page.

The best I have read this year

B. · June 27, 2022

This wouldn't be a book I would have immediately picked up but I am really glad I did. This is the best book I have read this year.The story is very simple, boy meets girl, boy and girl part and then ....... I don't think finds girl would be quite right but perhaps both find redemption and themselves. So far so straight forward but the background of fin de siècle Vienna prior to the outbreak of World War 1, a hospital clearing station, a part of the first war I knew very little about just shines out of the book and makes me want to visit the areas mentioned. The last time a book did that was Perfume. Background then is superb, characters are believable and well drawn (I especially liked the Mother of the hero Lucious) and apart from possibly one plot twist too many it all rolls along very well.What elevates it from good to great is the writing. The descriptive passages reminded me of Cider With Rosie and the way he writes about the fecundity of land once scarred by war and now returning to nature and productivity was not only beautiful but also an element of the plot. It echoed the journey of Lucious as he too had to return to a productive life, even though echoes of the past would remain. Just as trenches, bodies and discarded equipment remain in the land from the war.On completing Winter Soldier I did two things I seldom do. First I started reading it again, slower this time to draw out the real beauty of the writing and to savour the characters. Second I went on to Bolo and ordered every other book this author has written. The first arrived yesterday so well done Bolo for quick delivery.Finally and hopefully I want to know more about Lucious. I want to know what happens next, how he survives the 20's and 30's and where. This is too good a character to let slip.

Well Written and Addictive

L.W. · October 25, 2024

I very much enjoyed this book. Excellent writing, in-depth characters, authentic action and a very human story. Highly recommend.

The coldness and warmth of the human soul

S.S. · April 27, 2022

I’d almost begun to think that novels of this quality were no longer being written. “The Winter Soldier” is a story, time and place to lose yourself in, elegantly written and utterly compelling, without resorting to any attempt to show off the author’s cleverness or manipulate the reader.The setting is slightly unusual for a 1st World War novel written in English, as it focusses on the Austro-Hungarian empire in its last throes, rather than the more typical setting of the Western front. Of course, many of the places mentioned have become household names in recent weeks, adding a particular poignancy to the story. Will humankind never learn?The writing is grown-up, brutality is described but not lingered on unecessarily. There is much psychological depth as the main character experiences guilt, regret, yearning and the development of self-knowledge. Like his medical student protagonist, the author clearly has “an unusual aptitude for the perception of things beneath the skin.” The sense of place is perfect, from the villages in the mountains of Galicia, to the opulence of Imperial Vienna, to the medicine faculties of early 20th century universities.The characters come alive on the pages: the resourceful, bossy, rifle-wielding nurse Margarete and the student Lucius - from a wealthy family, but an eternal misfit, whose brilliant yet conflicted mind is often at odds with his actions.I read the Kindle version of the book, which I can recommend as there were plenty of unfamiliar words that needed looking up. Unfortunately the map isn’t clear on Kindle, but it’s not too much trouble to do a little extra research on the history and geography of this area of Central Europe with its ever-changing boundaries.

O soldado de nosso inverno.

C.A. · June 19, 2025

Uma das grandes obras de Daniel Mason.Pungente e com uma realidade cênica apaixonante.

Excellent

n.b. · May 14, 2024

Daniel Mason's The Winter Soldier is a great novel, enjoyable at different levels of profundity. It is a cracking yarn; it is a portrait of the moribund Habsburg Empire; and it seems to be making a point about how the individual is at the mercy of great events like war. In this sense perhaps it is a comment on Kafka and the helplessness of individual volition. It is the best novel which I have read for years.

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