A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2025 "e;A novel you will not put down. Maybe never."e;Richard Ford With over 250,000 copies sold, an award-winning WWII novel about the heroism of a single Finnish infantry companyand the best sniper the world has ever seendefending their country against the largest army in the worldNovember 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 friendcausing wounds to freeze and limiting the movement of the invaders. The legendary sniper Simo Hyh, nicknamed the "e;White Death,"e; 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.
