The Winter Soldier is a beautifully nuanced novel set as World War I begins to fester within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Daniel Mason draws the reader into Lucius Kzeleweski’s psyche, the angst, and alienation this bashful, sensitive 22 year old suffers amidst the milieu of his aristocratic bourgeois family in what was then Poland. His solace is medical school where he is able to immerse himself and excel in the academic world, expressing his love of learning.
As War becomes evident, peer pressure draws Lucius to enlist. Mason comically describes Lucius father, a blustering throwback to previous wars, who heretofore ignored Lucius. Lucius finds himself dumfounded with his father’s pomp and attention to prepare him for the forthcoming war.
With exquisite attention to detail Daniel Mason brings the reader through an empire ripped to shreds to his posting at a remote battered church in the Carpathian Mountains. Here, he finds Margarete, a nun left to operate alone and care for hordes of wounded patients.
Lucius insecurities arise once again, as he registers his incompetence at surgery, comparing himself to the self-taught nun, Sister Margarete, who has become adept in primitive conditions. Patiently, she teaches Lucius without criticism and they fall in love. As Lucius gains confidence, a marauding band of soldiers arrives claiming a wounded mute, patient Horvath. He and Margarete argue, he wishes to keep Horvath and Margarete’s believes he should travel with the soldiers with the hopes they will find Horvath better care. As they argue a soldier impatiently drags Horvath into the courtyard and lashes him until he falls to the ground, leaving Horvath senseless and impaired. Lucius finds himself haunted by guilt, and plagued by images of Horvath for years to come.
Daniel Mason artfully takes the reader full circle with the war coming to a close, the two lovers separated, and Lucius returning to his parents’ home in Vienna where they have moved. He finds himself tormented with his sense of failure as a doctor, hopelessly in love with Margarete, and attempting to find penance for his treatment of Horvath.
After an ill-fated marriage, Lucius finds himself driven to find Sister Margarete. Despite the anarchy and chaos into which the Austro-Hungarian Empire has descended, Lucius puts himself at risk in this search. Once he finds Margarete, she reluctantly tells him she has married Horvath and has cared for the wounded soldier. Tearfully, she also reluctantly discloses, that she and Horvath are raising the daughter Lucius has fathered.
Absolution overrides Lucius sadness, and he now feels a newfound clarity and the freedom to pursue his own life.
The Winter Solder is a work of art, and one of the best novels of the year.
Deborah Miller