The Warm Hands of Ghosts
There are myriad novels that depict the horrors of World War I, but Arden has come up with a new and mesmerizing approach. Her fairy tale adaptations like The Bear and the Nightingale have won frequent acclaim, and in this novel, the lines between history, myth, folklore, and magic are eerily blurred. In her afterword, Arden explains brilliantly, “World War I [was] as close to a moment of historical science fiction as we will ever get: an indescribable mashup of changing mores and technologies.”
Laura Iven, a gifted military nurse, is sent back to Halifax by an injury just in time to lose her parents in the catastrophic munitions ship explosion of December 1917. Her trauma is compounded when her soldier brother Freddie’s effects arrive, signaling his death in France. However, things are not what they seem. Her trio of spiritualist landladies (portentously named Clotilde, Lucretia, and Agatha) assure Laura that Freddie is still alive, and the narrative shifts back and forth between her quest to discover his fate and his nightmarish escape through the blasted battlefields of Europe, accompanied by a mysterious German soldier.
Into this apocalyptic setting comes a sinister figure, Faland, called “The Fiddler” by those soldiers who are drawn to his promises of relief from the torments of post-traumatic stress. Laura gradually learns that he is the key to rescuing her brother from an eerie half-world of guilt and terror. In Faland, Arden has created a rich metaphor for the despair created by the “War to End All Wars,” in which those who escape the bombs and bullets face even greater threats from their own memories. The subject matter is grim, but Arden’s prose is full of emotion and affection for both those who are broken and those who offer healing. It’s an unforgettable, inspiring read.
