Angel Down: A Novel

Daniel Kraus returns after the incredible Whalefall to a unique tale of World War I in Angel Down that goes so far as to emulate the stream of consciousness blood and guts literature that came out after those that survived the trenches shared their tales of suffering.

Private Cyril Bagger is our protagonist and is sent on a mission along with four other comrades as the Great War rages on. They must venture into the dreaded No Man’s Land between the trenches to put a wounded fellow soldier to rest. What they find instead is something impossible: a celestial being that has been brought down by artillery fire. The angel is undoubtedly important, perhaps for the entire war effort, but the small troop must work together to survive and prosper.

Kraus has written a compelling war story of World War I that immediately drags the reader into the book. But he goes one step further by writing it seemingly as one entire sentence from page one to the last page. The book is broken up by sections, but the writing style is fluid and fast and flowing like an unstoppable river as Private Bagger is going through all this.