Book description
It's September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War, but in 1917 Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector and was shot as…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Absolutist as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Boyne is a master storyteller, enormously gifted in doling out a story so that it unfolds bit by bit before us. I am in awe of his skill.
After WWI, a young soldier called Tristan is compelled to visit the sister of a fallen comrade to deliver the sister’s saved letters to her brother. All we know of Tristan is that he has endured something so terrible he at times would prefer not to live.
What he does not tell is that he was intimately involved with her brother Will a few times, and loves him, but though the intimacy…
From Stephanie's list on The most cherished historical LGBTQ love stories on my shelf.
If you love The Absolutist...
The Hidden Room
Could you survive in a cave...for a whole year? That's the challenge facing fourteen-year-old Jacob. Set in Ukraine during the final months of World War II, The Hidden Room is based on the true story of a Jewish family who escapes from the Nazis by taking refuge in a remote…
Want books like The Absolutist?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Absolutist.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
164
readers submitted
so far, will you?
