The Winter Warriors

De: Olivier Norek

Narrado por: Joseph Kloska

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2025

"A novel you will not put down. Maybe never."—Richard Ford

With over 250,000 copies sold, an award-winning WWII novel about the heroism of a single Finnish infantry company—and the best sniper the world has ever seen—defending their country against the largest army in the world

November 1939: The Soviet Union invades its small, relatively defenseless neighbor Finland, just three months after the declaration of World War II. So began what is known as the Winter War. A makeshift Finnish army of soldiers, workers, and farmers must face off against columns of tanks and millions of Stalin's Red Army fighters.

In a dramatic and deeply moving narrative based in part on diaries, journals, and accounts of participants, Norek captures the horror and tragedy of war. Soldiers go to battle with a shortage of weapons, and cold becomes both enemy and friend—causing wounds to freeze and limiting the movement of the invaders. The legendary sniper Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the "White Death," puts terror in the hearts and minds of the Russians.

Intense, propulsive, and deeply human, The Winter Warriors is a stunning historical novel of Finnish courage and determination in the face of the Soviet invasion.

Extraordinary

All of it. Plot. Narrator. When I finished, it was with a sense of melancholy

Well written and an Amazing Story

I had the sense that I was in the war while listening to this. I am so impressed at the ability of the fighters for Finland to stand up to the Russians. While I cannot really understand what it must have been like to fight in such a war, I gained an appreciation of the resolve and sacrifice of being in such a conflict. I believe there is something to be gained by such insight, and am sure other readers would have similar feelings. Definitely time well spent with this reading.