Angel Down: A Descent Into The Divine And Demonic In The Trenches Of War

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus: A Descent into the Divine and Demonic in the Trenches of War

Daniel Kraus, the acclaimed author behind the enjoyable Whalefall, returns with a unique and interesting narrative masterpiece: Angel Down. This immersive, cinematic novel plunges readers into the visceral nightmare of World War I, only to disrupt its grim realism with a shard of the supernatural, a fallen angel discovered amidst the carnage of No Man’s Land. The result is not merely a war story but a harrowing, structurally audacious exploration of human nature under extreme hardship.

Private Cyril Bagger is no hero. A consummate survivor, he navigates the Great War through wits, deception, and swindling his fellow soldiers. His fragile equilibrium shatters when he and four other grunts are dispatched on a grim mercy mission: cross into the lethal expanse of No Man’s Land to euthanise a wounded comrade whose agonised shrieks pierce the battlefield silence. What they discover, however, is no dying soldier.

Tangled in barbed wire lies a celestial being, a fallen angel, seemingly felled by artillery fire. This otherworldly entity, radiating an ethereal light, offers a tantalising, terrifying possibility: she may hold the key to ending the war. Yet, salvation hinges on the soldiers’ ability to conquer their basest instincts, greed, jealousy, paranoia, and cooperate. As these inner demons surge, the quest transforms into a Dantean descent where the true hell is human nature itself.

Kraus’s most daring gambit is the novel’s radical structure: a single, unbroken sentence stretching across 304 pages. Every paragraph begins with “and,” creating a relentless, breathless torrent of consciousness reminiscent of a prolonged artillery barrage or a desperate prayer. This isn’t mere stylistic showmanship; it’s a clever narrative strategy. As Kraus himself notes, “The absurdist futility of millions of men dying over a few feet of ruined land is a metaphor just wanting to be grabbed… I could emulate that death cycle by writing the book as one sentence that loops back on itself ad infinitum” .

The lack of conventional punctuation traps readers in Bagger’s psyche and the suffocating reality of the trenches. Descriptions of mud, blood, viscera, and the constant drone of war become inescapable, mirroring the soldiers’ entrapment.

The ceaseless sentence embodies the cyclical, inescapable nature of industrialised slaughter and the psychological toll of endless conflict.

While challenging initially, once you become synced with the powerful beats of the rhythm, you will soon become invested in the harrowing story that Daniel Kruas delivers.

Bagger stands as one of Kraus’s most compelling creations, a deeply flawed, morally ambiguous anchor. Raised the son of a stern bishop, he clings to a Bible not for spiritual solace but for the sensory comfort of it is a relic of a lost innocence. He’s a reluctant soldier, a conman, driven by survival above all else, making him initially repulsive yet fascinatingly character.

The angel’s arrival forces a confrontation not with divine judgment, but with his own buried capacity for something beyond selfishness. His complex, evolving relationship with the angel and a young soldier in their group becomes the novel’s moral core, showcasing Kraus’s ability to find glimmers of complex humanity amidst utter desolation without resorting to easy redemption.

The fallen angel is far more than a plot device. She is a multifaceted symbol. Her light offers potential salvation from the war’s literal and metaphorical darkness. Yet, this light also ignites the men’s covetousness, transforming her into an object to be possessed, protected, or exploited. Their desperate need to be in her light underscores their spiritual bankruptcy and longing. Rather than inspiring innate goodness, the angel acts as a crucible, amplifying the soldiers’ pre-existing flaws, selfishness, cowardice, and latent violence.

Angel Down breaks through its supernatural premise to deliver a scorching indictment of war and a bleak, yet piercingly insightful, study of human nature. Daniel Kraus spares no detail in depicting the grotesque, dehumanising reality of WWI trench warfare – the mud, the gore, the arbitrary death, the psychological disintegration.

The central question isn’t whether the angel can end the war, but whether broken, self-interested men deserve or are even capable of allowing peace.

Is Angel Down for everyone? Unflinchingly, no. The relentless sentence structure demands active engagement and patience. Its graphic depictions of war’s horrors are uncompromising. Its view of human nature is profoundly pessimistic, albeit tempered by moments of dark humour.

However, for those willing to submit to its unique rhythm and confront its darkness, Angel Down is a story that is ambitious, powerful, profound and epic in its scope. Kraus doesn’t just describe the horrors of war; he buries readers in them, using this unique narrative structure to explore questions of faith, corruption, and the fragile veneer of civilisation.. More than just a standout war novel, Angel Down is a brutal, brilliant prayer for the damned.

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus

A stylistically bold and innovative, cinematic horror novel about greed and paranoia, set amongst the grit and mud of the trenches in WW1. Perfect for fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Alma Katsu.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall, and the co-author of The Shape of Water alongside Guillermo del Toro.

Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.

What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.

Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.

Purchase a copy here