The Remembered Soldier

De: Anjet Daanje, David McKay - translator

Narrado por: Jonathan Todd Ross

National Book Award Finalist, Translated Literature

"Haunting, powerful..."—The New York Times

"The phenomenal English-language debut from Daanje weaves an affecting love story through a tangle of memories and dreams . . . The complex and layered narrative is as moving as it is unsettling, and it will keep readers wondering about the truth long after the final page. It's a remarkable achievement."—Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

"An epic, extraordinary story of love, identity and war, Anjet Daanje's first novel in English is a powerfully vivid portrait of two people dealing with their changed lives after the first world war . . . David McKay's page-turning translation faithfully conveys the propulsive nature of Daanje's long, sinuous sentences . . . Virtuoso stuff."—The Financial Times

"Daanje ... is currently the Netherlands' most celebrated writer. Her achievement is to bring us so close to her characters, and for so long an exposure, that they seem emotionally naked, utterly human in their efforts and deceptions. In its dangerous admixture of truth and reassembled reality, The Remembered Soldier develops an unforgettable picture of marital love."—The Wall Street Journal

An extraordinary love story and a captivating novel about the power of memory and imagination.

Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn’t turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand’s biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne’s stories about him. But how can he be certain that she’s telling the truth

In The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje immerses us in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne’s word, the listener is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest of literature can achieve.

©2019 Anjet Daanje and Uitgeverij Passage, Groningen, the Netherlands, Translation copyright 2025 David McKay (P)2025 Audible, Inc.

Post WWI Belgium

And every sentence begins with And. And the story creeps along. And the narrator sounds like he’s better suited to non-fiction.

Glacially Slow Tale of Memory Recovery and Rebirth

This is a very slowly developed story of an amnesiac veteran of WWI who is claimed by a woman who states that she is his wife. There is a slowly unfolded pathway of regained memory, of unsuspected allegiance, and of acceptance of a new future.

The Worst

I do not remember when I last gave up on a book, either print or audio. I have about 8 hours left on this title and I cannot imagine wasting another minute on such a truly awful novel. The plot could have interesting but moves along at the speed of continental drift. Scenes are repeated over and over. This does not make for interesting psychology but it does make for a very, very boring and tedious story. Even the sex scenes are boring and tedious! Perhaps there is some deep European sophistication here that I am missing. Or maybe the author is trying to make a profound statement about human memory and I don't get it. Or maybe there is nothing but drivel. This is too bad because I usually enjoy stories about the First World War. Save your time and credits. This book is not worth either. If it were possible to give an overall and story rating of zero stars, I would.

Great read!

A beautiful story! Well written. Organized, lovely and a must read. I will probably read again! Loved it!

The tedium is the message

An interesting story idea is totally ruined by tedious, mind numbing narrative. There is simply no story here, just endless repetition of the same concept over and over and over and over again. And why does nearly every sentence begin with the word “and“? it’s incredible that the author filled so many pages with so little story. I cannot recommend this book.