Angel Down
Winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Published on 29. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-1-83541-538-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
VULTURE BEST HORROR BOOKS OF 2025 (SO FAR)A thunderous gallop of a war novel, a new classic, a best-in-class example of speculative fiction. Mysterious and full of grace, rambling and ducking and shifting for 285 dizzying, blood-soaked, astonishing pages.
-New York Times
A bold and exceptional novel from the author of Whalefall. Kraus has taken the classic war story and crafted something completely unique.
-Library Journal (starred review)
[Angel Down] unfolds like a chant, in short paragraphs each beginning with the word and, and readers will quickly fall under Bagger's narrative spell as they see the visceral and gruesome toll war takes on the entire planet. Is Bagger going to survive through a miracle or by luck? A brilliant novel that will encourage its readers to live their best lives, despite the horrors that surround them. For fans of John Milas' The Militia House (2023) and thought-provoking tales that sow discomfort through story and narrative structure, such as Agustina Bazterrica's The Unworthy (2025).
-Booklist (starred review)
A war novel for people who don't like war novels.
-People magazine, Book of the Week
A vivid tale... Kraus ramps up the tension with the relentless cadence of his prose, offering no breaks from the action but finding room for glorious lyrical flights...With this vigorous narrative, Kraus breathes new life into the war novel.
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Disorienting and utterly sublime-a spiritually fulfilling literary gauntlet. This book is a miracle.
-Eric LaRocca
Kraus demonstrates what a seasoned author is capable of at the highest level of literary ambition. The most gripping, unforgettable account of war in recent memory-American war fiction is certain to be haunted by this book for years to come.
-John Milas
An absolute revelation, a hymn that sings of the humanity found within history's horrors. Here is a novel that will restore your faith in what the written word is capable of capturing.
-Clay McLeod Chapman
A literary masterwork of unparalleled dexterity and ingenuity. One of the best things I've ever read. I'm absolutely blown away.
-Josh Malerman
Daniel Kraus has done it again. Angel Down is a dark and frenzied tale, set on the hellish landscape of WW1 France-where amid mayhem and death, something unexpectedly miraculous happens that will change the lives of several men, forever. Kraus writes with a prose that is at once witty in its observations and searing in its depictions, offering glimpses of humanity amid the brutally inhumane theatre of war. This is a story of the supernatural. But it is also a reminder that the horrors we most often face are the ones we create ourselves.
-P. DjElI Clark, author of Ring Shout
This novel leaves you breathless. You can't guess where it's going, or how it's going to get there. Just, let it take your hand, pull you through these trenches, this war, this century, this... this life.
-Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author
The most literarily ambitious, beautiful, biblical, wholly unholy, horrifying torrent of cosmos and violence and militarised trauma that I've ever had the simultaneous joy and horror of laying my eyeballs on.
-FanFiAddict
Truly unique and at times quite bizarre.
-Bloody Flicks
PRAISE FOR WHALEFALL
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot, Shelf Awareness, and NPR
Whalefall is a rare thing: a page-turning, hold-your-breath, man-vs-nature thrill ride, but also a gripping exploration of the unnavigable relationship between parent and child. It's an anguished cry from the depths of that struggle. Bravo!
-Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and All Hallows
A crazy, and crazily enjoyable, beat-the-clock adventure story about fathers, sons, guilt and the mysteries of the sea . . . [Kraus] brings the rigor of a scientist and the sensibility of a poet to his descriptions of the undersea world.
--New York Times
This gripping sci-fi thriller from bestseller Kraus takes readers quite literally into the belly of the beast [...] Kraus provides solid nautical science alongside the stretchy coincidences that fuel Jay's survival. Just on the brink of horror fiction, especially for the claustrophobic, Kraus's deep-sea thrill ride will have readers on the edges of their seats.
--Publishers Weekly
A moving character study disguised as a riveting, cinematic survival thriller...The pacing is relentless, the awe astounding, and the tension palpably constricting, even as Kraus takes time to provide necessary details both scientific and visceral.
--Booklist, starred review
This hard sci-fi thriller is full of cinematic and wild suspense and would be great for fans of Andy Weir.
--Library Journal, starred review
Picture Jack London, but with a more nuanced handling of broken, damaged men.
--Chicago Tribune
One of the most intense - and moving - stories that will grace the bookstores in 2023...what Daniel Kraus has created here is something that can't be quantified.
--Cemetery Dance
An absolute triumph, a masterpiece of suspense, emotion, and flat-out terror...It's one of this year's can't-miss books, and a journey you won't soon forget.
--Paste Magazine
Kraus turns the literal guts of this novel into a haunted house, a torture chamber, a church and a uterus for belated rebirth. There is nothing else quite like Whalefall.
--New Scientist
A brutal, unsparing, wildly uplifting book. The sheer buoyancy had me breathless by the end.
-- Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters and Wendell & Wild
Astoundingly great. Whalefall is, quite simply, a beautiful novel-a must-read story of the sea, the nature of awe, and the briny relationships between fathers and sons.
-- Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Brave, bold, epic, propulsive. Whalefall is a deeply moving thriller that holds a planet's worth of hope in the pit of its stomach.
-- Joshua Ferris, National Book Award finalist
The primordial nightmare at the core of Whalefall is fantastically gripping. A character study developed in the most intense crucible imaginable, Kraus's latest novel is smart, surreal, and powerfully humane.
-- Owen King, New York Times bestselling author
A masterpiece. I haven't felt so alive reading a book in a long, long time.
-- Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love and creator of the HBO Max series
One of our oldest stories, one of our greatest fears, and one of our most capable writers. Stranger things than being swallowed by a whale have probably happened, but they've rarely been told so well.
-- Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author
Whalefall is a mind-blowing, take-your-breath-away adventure, but it's also a tender and moving story of the relationship between a father and son. Daniel Kraus is a writer I greatly admire. He can do anything, and does.
-- Dan Chaon, National Book Award finalist and New York TImes bestselling author of Sleepwalk
Unexpectedly emotional and wildly entertaining, Whalefall is the tense revamp of Jonah's tale you didn't know you needed.
-- Gabino Iglesias, award-winning author of The Devil Takes You Home
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
258 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83541-538-2 (9781835415382)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
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.
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.