First published 2025
Hans steps off the train from the Western Front and into a world that no longer makes sense. The celebrated surgeon finds his own home strange and unwelcoming. Even Grete, his wife, feels like a stranger. His hands shake as he tries to perform the simplest tasks. Sleep brings no relief, only terrible visions that blur the line between memory and nightmare. Hans begins to question everything. Did the war change him so completely that he has become someone else entirely? Or has an imposter somehow taken over his existence? The surgeon who once saved lives now struggles to understand his own. As Hans spirals deeper into confusion and terror, he speaks his thoughts aloud in an endless stream of consciousness. His monologue reveals a mind fractured by trauma, desperately trying to piece together an identity that may no longer exist. The war has ended, but for Hans, the battle for his sanity has just begun.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Western Front
Period: Post-World War I
160 pages · Hardcover · Pushkin Press
Content warnings: mental-illness, war