The Winter Warriors

A Historical Novels Review Editors Choice 2026

With over 600,000 copies sold, an award-winning WWII novel about the heroism of a single Finnish infantry company—and the best sniper the world has ever seen—defending their country against the largest army in the world

November 1939: The Soviet Union invades its small, relatively defenseless neighbor Finland, just three months after the declaration of World War II. So began what is known as the Winter War. A makeshift Finnish army of soldiers, workers, and farmers must face off against columns of tanks and millions of Stalin's Red Army fighters.

In a dramatic and deeply moving narrative based in part on diaries, journals, and accounts of participants, Norek captures the horror and tragedy of war. Soldiers go to battle with a shortage of weapons, and cold becomes both enemy and friend—causing wounds to freeze and limiting the movement of the invaders. The legendary sniper Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the "White Death," puts terror in the hearts and minds of the Russians.

Intense, propulsive, and deeply human, The Winter Warriors is a stunning historical novel of Finnish courage and determination in the face of the Soviet invasion.

"A novel you will not put down. Maybe never."—Richard Ford