Thank you to whoever recommended Daniel Kraus’ ANGEL DOWN (Titan Books 2025) to me. Nothing about the cover or the title would have made me pick up this book on my own, but word of mouth is strong! (And it’s since won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). This compelling and fast-paced novel never lets up; it hooks you in and grips you by the teeth and shakes you so you don’t know up from down. A remarkable story both in content and form.
The narrative manages to be both visceral and also at times whimsical (not an easy feat). The story is of Cyril Bagger and his experiences of the Great War. These include his physical environment of bodies destroyed and rotting, explosions decimating every live thing, the terrible conditions of trench life. If you are sensitive to this kind of description, this may not be the book for you. Kraus doesn’t hold back, he completely immerses the reader in this bloody, messy, fragile life.
But it’s also his experiences of the mental and emotional machinations at play amongst his fellow soldiers and those at the top: deception, sacrifice, jealousy, bloody-mindedness.
It’s within this setting that the story takes place: Bagger and four other soldiers are given the task of venturing into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanise a wounded comrade (no man left behind, but also, a deadly mission). What they find however is not an injured soldier but a fallen angel tangled in barbed wire, apparently struck down by artillery fire. This is where the whimsical coincides with the visceral. This luminous celestial being may hold the secret to ending conflict, to creating peace, but only if those around her can work together and not against each other.
What man, finding a fallen angel perhaps capable of miracles, would share her, even for the greater good? What soldier in the depths of hell would think twice about grabbing hold of any slim chance of hope and taking advantage of whatever is on offer?
This book is about ‘survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict’ and the author smoothly and adeptly traverses these topics, all the while questioning the reader as to what they would do in the same circumstance. ANGEL DOWN is dark, brutal, vicious, frenzied, horrific and cataclysmic, but it’s simultaneously ingenious, compassionate and thought-provoking.
The other remarkable aspect of this novel is its form. It consists of one continuous sentence, separated only by commas, and the first line is also the last. A supremely clever and innovative format. And before you complain you could never read a novel consisting of only one sentence, let me assure you the story is mostly broken into very small paragraphs, such that it’s easy to read, not difficult. I’ve seen other stories where the text is one continuous sentence, with no breaks; this is not that. This is as easy to read as if it did have traditional punctuation.
A story for those interested in the horrors of war, but also those who believe in what might be magic, or spirituality, or angels or ‘goodness’ personified. A story to force you to think about what your own choices would be under similar circumstances. An utterly unique story.