Publishers Weekly
10/30/2023
Marlantes (Deep River) sets his stirring story of innocents abroad in 1946 Finland as the Cold War is heating up. Arnie Koski is a taciturn Finnish American and champion skier assigned as the military attaché to the American legation in Helsinki. His wife, Louise, is an Oklahoman and former sorority president whose guilelessness contrasts with the savvy machinations of American and Soviet agents who are spying on them. At their first embassy party, Arnie and his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Bobrov, who met as allies during the war, get drunk and challenge each other to a clandestine ski race through Northern Finland. As they prepare for the 500-kilometer course (“their own little Olympics”), Louise attempts to befriend Mikhail’s glamorous and wary wife, Natalya, and, in a subplot that causes the novel to drag, raise money for a Finnish orphanage. Owing to Louise’s carelessness, the ski race gets picked up by the press and spun into a proxy battle between democracy and communism. Louise’s naivete strains credulity, but the novel comes alive in its last third, as the former soldiers finally embark on the race, having agreed on acceptable types and doses of performance enhancing drugs but unprepared for the dire stakes, as Mikhail’s death is all but certain should he lose and embarrass the Soviet Union. Marlantes sticks the landing in this satisfying drama. (Jan.)
Sebastian Junger
One of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.”
Booklist (starred review) on Deep River
Marlantes poignantly depicts the intimacies of personal dramas that echo the twentieth century’s unprecedented political storms and yet in surprising ways reprise Finland’s oldest mythologies…An unforgettable novel.”
From the Publisher
Praise for Karl Marlantes:
“Marlantes conveys the elements, arcana and dangerous romance of logging superbly. His descriptions of logging itself—the ingenious mechanics of taking down trees and the skill of experienced loggers—are wonderfully detailed, dramatic and exhilarating… Mighty physical, social and economic forces operate the plot of this novel, buffeting its characters, raising them up, flinging them down, twisting their fates together. Deep River is a big American novel.”—Wall Street Journal on Deep River
“Deep River is an engrossing and commanding historical epic about one immigrant family’s shifting fortunes… An unforgettable novel.”—Washington Post on Deep River
“Marlantes poignantly depicts the intimacies of personal dramas that echo the twentieth century’s unprecedented political storms and yet in surprising ways reprise Finland’s oldest mythologies… An unforgettable novel.”—Booklist (starred review) on Deep River
“Matterhorn is a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history. . . . It’s not a book so much as a deployment, and you will not return unaltered. . . . One of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.” —Sebastian Junger, The New York Times Book Review (front-page review) on Matterhorn
“A powerful first work that defines the tragic cost of the Vietnam War in human terms. Marlantes’ breakneck writing style is both passionate and haunting, thrusting the reader into alternating moments of chaos and courage reflecting the fragility of our Marines on the ground—and their leadership—in combat.” —W.E.B. Griffin on Matterhorn
“Karl Marlantes has written a staggeringly beautiful book on combat—what it feels like, what the consequences are and above all, what society must do to understand it. In my eyes he has become the preeminent literary voice on war of our generation. He is a natural storyteller and a deeply profound thinker who not only illuminates war for civilians, but also offers a kind of spiritual guidance to veterans themselves. As this generation of warriors comes home, they will be enormously helped by what Marlantes has written—I’m sure he will literally save lives.” —Sebastian Junger on What It Is Like to Go to War
“What It Is Like to Go to War is a well-crafted and forcefully argued work that contains fresh and important insights into what it’s like to be in a war and what it does to the human psyche.” —The Washington Post on What It Is Like to Go to War
FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile
Bronson Pinchot embraces the tone and accents of the international characters in this political thriller. In 1947, military attachés gather at a party. An American and a Russian diplomat agree to a friendly ski race across the Finnish countryside. The audiobook focuses on the adventure of the race, but real intrigue builds around the international diplomacy that mounts once word gets out about it. Pinchot's subtle performance captures the action of the competition. He also provides a quiet but tense soundscape for the backroom dialogue, which has the wives doing most of the talking as they work to avoid a dangerous propaganda disaster. Pinchot skillfully navigates the accents and characters, providing a satisfying performance. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
