Unhesitantly, THE MARTYRED is one of the greatest war stories I have read. Philip Roth nails it on the head with "the passion of the book is perpetually beating up against its seemingly barren surface." That's exactly it. Through the ruins, through the quiet snow, the characters' hearts beat and struggle on. At once a sorrowful ode to how atheists and the religious survive the absurd meaninglessness of war, a treatise on how doubt makes us human, and a beautiful commentary on propaganda. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a haunting, wartime read.