The Absolutist is the ninth novel by Irishman John Boyne (best known to American readers for the mega-bestselling YA title The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). Like most of his work, it deals with a serious subject, very serious.
The novel is elegantly laid out--divided into seven parts, each taking us to a different time, each revealing something new. It opens in September 1916, as 21-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to meet Marian, the sister of Will Bancroft, someone he met during the Great War and was in love with, though it wasn't reciprocated. He's returning letters Marian wrote to Will.
Boyne takes us from the war to postwar, to prewar, and so on, to 1979. Each "time" Tristan (as narrator) reveals more of himself. We learn about his early mistreatment as a homosexual, his war training alongside Will, his pain and suffering during the grotesque war, as well as his fears and profound guilt. Will was the "absolutist," the one who stood up to the war's brutality and refused to fight, the one who paid the highest price for his integrity. Tristan is the one left behind to suffer.
This is a highly layered tale, nuanced and complex. Its telling, with much dialogue, seems a throwback to James, Forster, even Ford Madox Ford, but its modernisms belong to McEwan and Bainbridge. Beautifully crafted and wrought, The Absolutist is a story to be savored. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher