Quick Review – The Winter Palace by Paul Morgan

The Winter Palace Cover

Publisher: Penguin Books (Trade Paperback – 26 March 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 329 pages

My page: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Compelling Australian author Paul Morgan presents an intense and intriguing historical drama that examines the tragic lives of a Polish husband and wife who find themselves torn apart by war and circumstance in The Winter Palace.

Plot Synopsis:

If he had died, I would know it in my heart.

In 1939, Anton, a captain in the Polish army, says goodbye to his wife, Elisabeth. He is leaving to defend their homeland against the invasion by Nazi Germany and Russia. They make a vow that – whatever happens, however much time passes – they’ll meet again at the Winter Palace, their stately home in the Polish countryside.

The winds of war draw them far apart. Anton is captured and sent to Siberia as a POW. He eventually joins a lost army that battles through snowstorms and scorching deserts in Central Asia to find freedom. Anton survives, driven by his determination to join Elisabeth again. She, meanwhile, is forced to be the ‘mistress’ of a Nazi officer before escaping to join the Polish resistance.

As the war ends, Anton and Elisabeth are at the opposite ends of the world. Anton is in Australia. Elisabeth is in Poland, awaiting his return for months and then years. Will they ever meet again at the Winter Palace?

From 1930s Europe to present-day Australia, this is a sweeping story of love that cannot be broken by time, distance, war or even death.

Morgan came up with a powerful and captivating tale in The Winter Palace which really hits hard. Following Anton, a Polish military captain, and his wife Elisabeth, The Winter Palace features a well-planned-out split protagonist storyline that shows their respective dark journeys during the destructive chaos of World War II.

Both character-focused storylines are interesting and dark in their own ways, especially as the two protagonists go through hell and back as part of their respective war stories. Anton’s plot follows the fate of the Polish soldiers who were captured during the joint Nazi and Soviet Invasion. In Anton’s case, he experiences being a Soviet POW, a reluctant Soviet soldier fighting the Nazis, and then a member of the Allies when the Soviets send their freed Polish soldiers to Palestine. Elisabeth’s story is more Poland focused, as she is forced to become a Nazi ‘mistress’ before escaping and finding purpose, first as a nurse, and then as a member of the Polish resistance. Both storylines go in some very compelling directions, as the protagonists experience major traumas, tragedies and struggles, all while the two characters are convinced that they will never see their spouse again.

I honestly have a hard time saying which of these two storylines was my favourite, as both hit you in different ways. Anton’s was possibly the more interesting to me as a fan of military history, and I found his constant struggle to survive the direct imprisonments he experienced to be both moving and intense. There are some very direct tragedies in Anton’s experiences, including a particularly dark moment in the first half of the book, and I really found the story of the captured Polish soldiers to be extremely fascinating. However, the other half the book that focuses on Elisabeth is just as dark, if not even more traumatic, especially as the protagonist experiences evil she can’t fight back against, at least not at first. Watching her overcome her constant oppression and pull together a satisfying life that allows her to help people on many fronts was particularly inspiring, and I really enjoyed how her arc came together.

While these storylines are separate for the entirety of the plot, I felt that Morgan did a good job playing them off each other. The corresponding tragedies, the near misses in finding out each other’s fates, and the decisions they make as a result are all moving and captivating, and you are constantly enthralled to see if or how they will get back together. I think that the ending Morgan left the book on was particularly moving, and it fit the overarching themes of the tragedy of war and not knowing about those left behind. I also appreciated how Morgan didn’t overuse the trope of Australian descendants finding out the wartime secrets of their parents or grandparents. Instead, readers were given a simple but highly effective connection to the present that ended the story on a thoughtful and peaceful note that was a great conclusion to such an intense story.

I really must emphasise how impressed and intrigued I was by some of the historical elements captured in The Winter Palace. Morgan does an amazing job of showcasing various alterative experiences suffered by the Polish, from the initial invasion all the way up to the end of the war. This includes a great rundown of how many citizens, especially women, were abused in Poland as the troops rolled in, which ensured a dark aura around the potential homecoming many characters were hoping for. However, I found the historical details of the Polish soldiers and civilians captured in the opening days of the invasion to be the most interesting. Watching the various hardships and journeys that these individuals had to go through during the war, including being POWs, having to fight alongside their former captors against the Nazis when they found themselves on the same side as the Soviets, and the transfer of their army to the Middle East to serve with the Allies on the Western front was extremely fascinating and it was an part of history you don’t see often in fiction. These historical details from Morgan where some of my favourite parts of the book, and I deeply appreciated the compelling story he told around them.

Overall, The Winter Palace by Paul Morgan was an outstanding and compelling historical drama that really grabbed my attention. Powerful, unflinching and focusing on a complex and dark period of our history, this was an emotionally charged and excellent read that is really worth checking out.

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