The Remembered Soldier

About this book

International booker prize longlistnational book award finalist--the New York Times 100 notable books of 2025--the Wall Street Journal 10 best books of 2025--Publishers Weekly 2025 best books of the year--chicago public library best books of 2025 --the New York Times "the best historical fiction"--2026 pen translation prize finalist--republic of consciousness prize winner "superb . . . In its dangerous admixture of truth and reassembled reality, 'The Remembered Soldier' develops an unforgettable picture of marital love."--Sam Sacks in The Wall Street JournalAn extraordinary love story and a captivating novel about the power of memory and imagination: Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn't turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand's biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne's stories about him. But how can he be certain that she's telling the truth? In The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje immerses us in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne's word, the reader is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest of literature can achieve.Reading group guide to The Remembered Soldier is available for download free of charge at newvesselpress.com.