El pacifista ( english review)

Author: John Boyne

Genre: War, Narrative,

Contemporary Fiction

Number of pages:284

Editorial: Salamandra

SYNOPSIS

September 1919, Tristan Sadler, twenty-one, takes a train from London to Norwich to return to Marian Bancroft the letters he is writing to his late brother, Will during the Great War. Will and Tristan had an intimate relationship, but the letters are only the pretext of the visit. Tristan actually keeps a painful secret that he is willing to share with his friends' sister if he finally manages to gather the necessary courage.

The pacifist is a novel of heroism, love, and betrayal in the morally hazy universe of war. In an environment where cruelty and unreasonableness prevail, two very young soldiers wage a bitter battle against the complexity of their emotions. Their friendship, first in the field of instruction and then in the trenches of northern France, brings with it the intense light of self-knowledge and happiness, but also the darkness of confusion and pain. John Boyne manages the threads of the story with great skill, until reaching a shocking outcome, of those who remain in the memory.

PERSONAL OPINION

Love is all we want but what happens when it goes against the laws of society when the world is not prepared for a more evolved thought, when your true love does not accept your true essence when your miso does not accept your essence?


The stories of war have always attracted my attention and I have always liked equal thinking (that each person respects the opinions and beliefs of others), sexual orientation or gender becomes valid and is respected for that when seeing that John Boyne combined tragic war stories and actions that defied society gave me a lot of intrigues to read his novel.

From the first page I got caught, the romance contained in this novel is the most beautiful, the form of narration is simply perfect, it gives you the necessary details so that you understand in context without it being too overwhelming (as many writers do when narrating details too much and make the reading heavier or boring)

As I mentioned before the war I was always very intrigued and more intrigued by the fact that before people went proudly to wars and if you did not want to be part of that killing you were a kind of a traitor, coward and deserved death at all costs; Boyne manages to capture all that
The whole book is worth it, but the end is honestly excellent, it could not have a better ending than the pain that soldiers, families and close friends go through.
What if I was very conflicted was Will, I hated to see how it hurt Tristan's feelings if I understand the two confused about their true identity and everything that is secret but that need to get hurt in that way.

It is a book that I highly recommend not only because he is my favorite writer but also for all the messages he gives.

"A novel of a deep melancholy ... John Boyne is very, very good in his portrayal of the destructive power of a painfully guarded secret." - John Irving

If you want to read the previous review click here or if you want to read this post in Spanish click here 💫💫💫💫💫5/5

-Naily