[Critique] The Winter Warriors, Olivier Norek

Far from his Trilogy 93 and his favorite genre, the thriller, Olivier Norek invites us this year to a distant land, both geographical and temporal, and offers us his very first historical novel, Winter Warriorspublished by Michel Lafon editions.

At the heart of the Winter War

This brand new novel takes us into the frozen universe of the Winter War, beginning on November 30, 1939 and ending a few months later, in March 1940. This conflict pitted Finland, then a very young nation, against the Union Soviet remains rather unknown, despite its considerable strategic importance in the light of the Second World War, and its particular resonance in the current context of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Olivier Norek recounts this neglected part of history, with meticulousness and rigor, focusing in particular on the fate of Simo Häyhä, Finnish sniper who became a national hero, and nicknamed “the White Death” for his sniper gifts outside the common.

Like a field investigator, the author stayed more than 100 days in Finland during the winter, to try to understand the living conditions of these soldiers, and it is clear that his meticulous and exhaustive work is breathtaking. The novel develops the war in all its aspects: the military strategy, the weapons used, the choice of clothing… Everything is told to us in the smallest details, with a constant concern for accuracy, within a story teeming with anecdotes. informative, punctuated with expressions in Finnish, and concluding with appendices where we find maps, photographs, quotes, and a very extensive bibliography. In a warning to the reader, Norek specifies that even the dialogues most often come from archives or the testimonies of soldiers or historians. The writing is immersive and nervous, and we find ourselves plunged into the heart of the action, in the fire of guns and under the explosion of Molotov cocktails, with a shocking realism.

A fluid and addictive story with warning value

Although having absolutely nothing to do with thriller or detective novel, Winter Warriors bears the traces of Olivier Norek's precise and addictive pen. The chapters are rather short, like a page-turnerand the author always takes the trouble to specify the location and the protagonists of each new part, in order to facilitate reading and to always be understandable and didactic. The author creates an atmosphere of tension, both distressing and tragic, and the story always remains accessible, despite its dense and difficult subject. Of course, the novel is long, but it doesn't become boring. Its nearly 450 pages transcribe the weight of this conflict, these long months spent resisting and trying to repel an invincible enemy.

Olivier Norek writes to make us think about the absurdity of war, our involvement in contemporary global conflicts, the meaning of the word resistance and the paradox of the figure of the hero. He questions the difference between knowing how to kill, being able to kill and having to kill, and studies the different possible behaviors in the face of so much violence and brutality. He also takes the opportunity to denounce by analogy the cowardice and inaction of European powers, and sends a warning about potential conflicts to come, inside or outside our territory.

Sensitive writing in search of empathy

In Winter WarriorsOlivier Norek pushes his writing talents even further. More descriptive, in search of the right word and the striking formula, the pen loses in efficiency, but gains in richness and poetry. Some scenes are memorable, sometimes macabre, like this horror painting depicting the Russian attackers and their horses frozen in ice, during the attack on the frozen Gulf of Finland. Sometimes moving, sometimes humorous, particularly when it relates the absurdity of certain Russian tactical errors, the story rejects the somewhat facile pathos and epic, and attempts to humanize History, to make it more tangible and closer of us.

To do this, Norek creates a very extensive range of characters, and takes the time to build them. They are all recognizable despite their number, like the famous captain Aarne Juutilainen, nicknamed “The Horror of Morocco”, whose escapades and terrible character will be remembered. Simo's comrades in arms, from the same village of Rautjärvi, are protagonists, certainly secondary but essential, who remind the reader that, behind each feat of arms hides a man, with his past and his ties. However, and this will be the only real downside to this very beautiful novel, these winter warriors lack a more in-depth characterization, which would allow them to arouse more empathy. The author in fact paints the portrait of men so idealized – the fact of describing them as a father, a brother or a friend does not make their declared status of national hero disappear – that it paradoxically becomes more difficult to understand. 'attach to it.

With Winter WarriorsOlivier Norek therefore renews himself by offering his reader an intense and romantic epic. Demanding, precise and incredibly documented, the novel nevertheless places itself at human level and makes accessible an often forgotten part of history, the echo of which with international current events sends shivers down the spine.