The Remembered Soldier

Anjet Daanje (trans. David McKay)

‘The novel’s depictions are minute and comprehensive … Ms. Daanje has a dense, rhythmic writing style that captures how the consciousness of each character flows … In David McKay’s assiduous translation from the Dutch, the sentences tumble forward hypnotically, if often monotonously, from one moment to the next. It’s a prose style that, like Amand, seems to have no past, only a perpetually unspooling present … In its dangerous admixture of truth and lies and reassembled reality, The Remembered Soldier develops an unforgettable picture of marital love.’

Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

‘This is magnificent, complex writing, exploring the complications to identity, memory, latent anger and gender dynamics posed by trauma.’

Bob Moore, Good Reading

View all reviews

‘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

‘A psychologically astute and accomplished novel. The Remembered Soldier is a studied exploration of a marriage and wartime horror. The prose is nothing short of Jamesian in its nuanced depiction of … intimacy, and David McKay’s translation of Daanje’s writing, with all of its subtleties, is truly remarkable.’

Lori Feathers, The Book Project

‘Grapples with fragile versions of the truth … The Remembered Soldier, a luminous historical novel, mines the seams between a veteran’s traumas and restored hope.’

Foreword Reviews, starred review

‘By far the best novel of recent years.’

NRC Handelsblad

‘A gripping story … stirring, psychologically profound, and not a page too long.’

Deutschlandfunk

‘The book is phenomenal.’

Ivo van Hove, Tony and Olivier award–winning theatre director

‘This is a story about healing a soldier’s mind after surviving years of carnage, and it is about restoring mutual trust and love after so much has happened … [A]n absorbing tale.’

Kirkus Reviews

‘Particularly impressive … a solid, engaging novel, The Remembered Soldier also uses the historical period and place well, making for a rich read.’

The Complete Review

‘This is a beautifully written book … [V]ery effective as it brings the reader into the flying thoughts of an injured, tormented, and confused mind. The ending is complicated, but contains a surprise, and the reader is left guessing … Highly recommended.’

Historical Novels 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 … A novel of epic scope that resonates powerfully while wars of tragic loss continue to be fought on multiple fronts, including in Europe. Daanje exhibits brilliant powers of reconstitution in her descriptions of the war’s aftermath and the blighted landscapes that it left behind.’

Tobias Grey, The Financial Times

‘A novel of epic scope that resonates powerfully while wars of tragic loss continue to be fought on multiple fronts, including in Europe. Daanje exhibits brilliant powers of reconstitution in her descriptions of the war’s aftermath and the blighted landscapes that it left behind.’ Tobias Grey in The Financial Times

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 recognises 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-traumatised man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne’s word, the reader is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest works of literature can achieve.

Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

‘This is magnificent, complex writing, exploring the complications to identity, memory, latent anger and gender dynamics posed by trauma.’

Bob Moore, Good Reading

View all reviews

Publishers Weekly, starred review

Lori Feathers, The Book Project

‘Grapples with fragile versions of the truth … The Remembered Soldier, a luminous historical novel, mines the seams between a veteran’s traumas and restored hope.’

Foreword Reviews, starred review

‘By far the best novel of recent years.’

NRC Handelsblad

‘A gripping story … stirring, psychologically profound, and not a page too long.’

Deutschlandfunk

‘The book is phenomenal.’

Ivo van Hove, Tony and Olivier award–winning theatre director

‘This is a story about healing a soldier’s mind after surviving years of carnage, and it is about restoring mutual trust and love after so much has happened … [A]n absorbing tale.’

Kirkus Reviews

‘Particularly impressive … a solid, engaging novel, The Remembered Soldier also uses the historical period and place well, making for a rich read.’

The Complete Review

Historical Novels Review

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Details

Format:Hardback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:576pp

ISBN (13):9781915590053

RRP:£20.00

Pub date:19 Jun 2025

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2020 F. Bordewijk Prize - Winner 2020 Libris Literature Prize - Long-listed 2020 The Best Book of Groningen Prize - Winner

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Anjet Daanje

Anjet Daanje writes novels, short stories, and screenplays. Her breakthrough novel, The Remembered Soldier, won the Netherlands’ 2020 F. Bordewijk Prize and the Best Book of Groningen Prize. The Song of Stork and Dromedary won the 2023 Libris Literature Prize, the most prestigious award for Dutch literature, and the Boeekenbon Prize, the Netherlands’ other major literary award — the first time that the Libris and Boekenbon prizes have been won by the same book. It has since been licensed in 13 languages and has sold over 100,000 copies in the Netherlands. Scribe has licensed North American rights in its edition to Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

TRANSLATOR

David McKay

David McKay is an award-winning translator of Dutch fiction and nonfiction. Born and educated in the United States, he has lived in and around The Hague since 1997.

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