The Absolutist When I finished reading this book I gave it 4 stars. I thought it was a powerful and thought provoking novel of the ugliness and the burdens of war that were placed on the young men who fought in WWI. I still think that, but I also can’t stop thinking about the personal burdens and inner struggles that they carried with them when they went to war and the added ones they came home with if they came home. I had to raise it up to five stars. “Twenty boys. And only two came back.”Tri...

Phenomenal!!!!! The nitty-gritty-reality..of what frickin war can can do - and not do--oh how I LOVE JOHN BOYNE!!! My God... I had NO IDEA what I would discover when I started reading this AMAZING NOVEL...storytelling that is sooooo good!!!-- - so much I wish to say. I'm completely SPENT....EVERY EMOTION triggered!!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!

As the story opens we meet Tristan Sadler. The year is 1919 and he’s travelling to Norwich to look up the sister of a friend who was killed in the First World War. He’s very nervous about meeting her, that much is clear, but there is less evidence – yet – as to the reason for his obvious trepidation. All will be come clear, but not for some time. We start to learn of Tristan’s friendship with Will Bancroft in episodes that alternate with more detail of his stay in Norwich. It seems that they met...

I was immediately drawn to the book because it’s partly set in my stamping ground of Norfolk. The protagonist Tristan is on his way to Norwich at the beginning to meet a mysterious someone or other which is nicely protracted until it needs to be revealed. There’s a irritating and lengthy section in his boarding house which achieved nothing other than to tell the reader “oh no, homosexuality is verboten in England” as if they wouldn’t know and “people don’t like it” which of course they know too....

My third book by this author and each one has been so beautifully written. The kind of books you walk around with in your head for days after finishing them.The Absolutist tells of the horrors of war and through Tristan, the main character, we learn how difficult it was to live as a homosexual in 1916. His relationship with Will, who is struggling with his beliefs and values in every area of his life, is tumultuous and ends in disaster.And then after all the drama and death life just goes on. I

4.5 starsThere isn't a lot I can say about this beautiful book that hasn't already been said. A WW1 setting, a 17 yr old homosexual, Tristan, who joined up because his parents no longer wanted him in their lives, and from there the real drama begins as he falls for his bunkmate. Told in flashbacks a few years later, Tristan meets with his buddy's sister to discuss the truth about what happened, what happens, during wartime. What is said can apply to every war, as there are always going to be men...

"It would be best for all of us if the Germans shoot you dead on sight." —Tristan Sadler’s father.God, I appreciate you, John Boyne; with your head as smooth as a baby's bottom, your sparkling pixie eyes and your creative bloody genius. You were my go-to author when I hit a run of lamentable reads and you didn't let me down, you wonderful man.The story begins in 1919, post-WWI England, in my own city of Norwich (I don't actually own it, I just live here). Tristan Sadler is the custodian of le

Tristan Sadler, newly 21, travels to Norwich from his London home to take care of an errand he is dreading. He has promised to deliver a sheaf of letters his friend Will Bancroft received while they fought together during World War I to Will's sister. And while this errand dredges up memories of the fighting and the deaths that Tristan would rather not remember, it also forces him to confront his feelings, his actions, and the direction the rest of his life is going to take.Spending the day with...

Oh, how very tragic, sad, and moving this novel was! It made the reality of World War 1 ever more so awful as this author managed to make the reader aware and knowing due to his unforgettable and complex characters. Having read three books fairly recently about the "great" war, a misnomer if ever there was one, the plight and hardship suffered by these young men was unbelievable. It broke my heart to again be reminded of the carnage, the loss of young lives, and the utter depravity of war.We see...

"...there's a difference between breathing and being alive."I've been working my way through all of Boyne's books, and each time I start a new one I think to myself that there is no way this one can top the previous one. And each and every time, not only have I found myself mistaken, I am left astonished by his blinding literary brilliance.There is no way to rate his books in order of best to worst.There simply is no worst.There isn't even a mediocre.This story has left me shattered.

John Boyne brings the muddy trenches of WWI to life as twenty-one year old Tristan Sadler narrates the story of his young life and personal friendship with Will Bancroft. This unforgettable story has much sadness and heartbreak as Tristan unleashes his whopper of a secret, but OMGOSH, what a page-turner complete with vivid descriptions of the horrors of war and a horror of a father.This is my third JB novel and definitely won't be my last. The powerful ending made it a 5 star read for me.

The Absolutist is a dramatic look at World War One. Tristan Sadler has survived the war, but his friend, Will Bancroft, has not. It’s 1919 and Tristan takes a train to Norwich, to return Will’s sister’s letters to her. But that’s not the real reason he wants to see her. The book takes us back to their army training where the boys first meet. Boyle is the master of understatement. He doesn’t hit us over the head, but hints at what is to come. He shows us not only the brutality of the war, but als...

"I may not be buried in a French field but I linger there."Fate presses us close to those things that we value in life, but it also locks us in with bolt and chain to those things that bring us grief, remorse, and mortal bitterness.John Boyne pens a story so brimming with sheer pain from a wounded soul that we hold our breath in its telling. Boyne's pages turn in the direction of Tristan Sadler, a so very young individual leaning more towards boyhood than manhood in 1916. He joins the fate of ot...

This book, in my mind, cements John Boyne as one of, if not THE finest Irish novelist ever. It gets a 4.5 simply because I liked The Heart’s Invisible Furies just a tad more; I therefore have Mr. Boyne competing against himself, fair or not. This man digs deep into the human mind, spirit, and soul. In my experience his closest competition in this respect is Fredrik Backman. To be gay in the early 20th century was a curse. This was simply unacceptable in society at that time. These people for the...