The Peace Thieves by Brent van Staalduinen

How do soldiers and first responders cope with the trauma they have witnessed after they return home? That question lies at the heart of the story for Brent van Staalduinen’s The Peace Thieves. Reminiscent of The Wars by Timothy Findley, van Staalduinen takes us to the frontlines of a brutal conflict and demonstrates the lasting impact of such a disturbing event on those who are party to it. He is himself a former army medic, and van Staalduinen has written a painful account of Canadian peacekeepers working with the UN in Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s.

Utilizing a dual timeline with two narrators, van Staalduinen has crafted a novel that negates any romanticized notions the reader may have about the role of peacekeepers working internationally. Francis Kloet, a reservist serving as a medic in Croatia in the 1990s is the main character and provides the driving narrative. Through third person narrative, his thirty-something daughter Viva provides another, more contemporary perspective. Francis has returned to his hometown of Hamilton and taken over the family bar. His relationship with family, Hamiltonians and particularly Viva, demonstrates the devastating long-term impact of the trauma he has been a part of.

As Francis attempts to navigate a relationship with Viva, a series of painful memories from the past come flooding back, and he struggles to develop and maintain meaningful connections with people who cannot understand the history that has shaped him.

On the stretcher sits a girl holding a filthy cloth against her head. Silent and watchful…. The girl is a slight presence, dark haired and pale, perhaps twelve or thirteen, at the age where you pause when you say girl, wondering if you say young woman, and then feel stupid for wondering at all. Her torn jeans are blood-spattered, and she’s wearing a grey ARMY t-shirt, three sizes too large, that the clerk must’ve pity-stolen from Buddy. Running up both forearms are a series of small circular wounds healed to scar. Cigarette burns. My eyes are drawn to one set of three that have combined to form a Mickey Mouse silhouette.

The devastation that Francis witnesses is widespread, touching not only the lives of those who have survived, but also the landscape that encompasses them.

Here, nothing remains intact. The house and farm buildings have been ruined and set on fire, leaving only short sections of blackened stone walls and piles of shattered brick. But nothing’s been removed from the property. Twisted farm equipment lies scattered around, taken apart and smashed, like stepped-on insects. In the ruins of the home, dishes and clothing and furniture have been thrown around and lie in fractured heaps. I walk by a row of porcelain dolls, the kind found on girl-shelves anywhere, lined up against the base of a ruined wall. A dozen or so, most still upright with a few leaned over in defeat. Precise spacing. Intentionally posed. Like they’ve been lined up for execution. A message about the vulnerability of even the most precious things. All their faces have been smashed.

Parts of this book are painful to read, but the writing is exceptional, the characters are fully developed, and the utter horror of such conflict is writ large. While the reader will need to take a deep cleansing breath once it is finished, the story will linger in ways that all important stories do. Recommended.

Brent van Staalduinen is the award-winning author of the novels Nothing But Life, Boy, and Saints, Unexpected, as well as the story collection Cut Road. Accolades include the Kerry Schooley Book Award, the Bristol Short Story Prize, and numerous other awards. A recovering librarian, reformed high school English teacher, and long-ago army medic, Brent now finds himself mentoring writers, cheering for Forge FC, and wandering Hamilton’s streets looking for stories.

Publisher: Thistledown Press (June 2, 2026)
Paperback 5.5″ x 8.25″ | 348 pages
ISBN: 9781771872850

Lucy E. M. Black

Website

Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth. A Quilting of Scars will be released October 2025. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.