The Lieutenant Must be Mad

by Hans Hellmut Kirst

First published 1972

Lieutenant Krafft receives orders that seem designed to destroy him and his men. His superiors demand actions that violate both military sense and human decency. Krafft must choose between blind obedience and his conscience as the war machine grinds forward around him. The other officers watch to see if he will crack under the pressure or find a way to resist without destroying himself. His soldiers depend on decisions that could save or damn them all. Krafft discovers that sanity in an insane system looks like madness to those who enforce it.

Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, military-fiction, action

Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, moral-dilemma, unreliable-narrator

Period: World War II

283 pages · Hardcover · Morley Books

Content warnings: violence

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