A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A bestselling, award-winning World War II 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 tiny, relatively defenceless neighbour Finland, just three months after the declaration of World War II. So begins what is known as the Winter War. A small makeshift company of soldiers, workers, and farmers must face off against columns of tanks and Stalin's Red Army fighters.
In this propulsive and deeply moving narrative based on the true story of the Finnish infantry division, heroes emerge: the star sniper Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the 'White Death'; the young men from farms and villages who meet again on the battlefield to fight for their homes; and nurses who must treat old childhood friends. The soldiers go to battle with old guns as their wounds freeze in the unforgiving cold, and yet not only do they resist the Soviet soldiers, but they force the superpower to offer terms for peace only a few months later.
Drawing on the real-life figures and battles of the Finnish–Soviet Winter War, The Winter Warriors is a riveting, heart-pounding, epic historical thriller from one of Europe's most acclaimed crime writers.