A Conversation with Daniel Kraus

Celebrating Angel Down

Today we are thrilled to introduce you to the NYT-bestselling author Daniel Kraus to chat all about his brand-new book (just out today!), ANGEL DOWN, an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.

The advance buzz for this book has been simply amazing. People magazine named it their Book of the Week, saying “this is a war novel for people who don’t like war novels—and a moral lesson for the ages.” Edgar Award-winning author Ben H. Winters, in a rave review for the New York Times Book Review, said this: “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.”

ANGEL DOWN is Kraus’s adult fiction follow-up to his “crazily enjoyable” (New York Times) 2023 novel Whalefall which is currently in production as a major motion picture with Imagine Entertainment starring Josh Brolin, and which received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and more.

Penned in a single breathless sentence, ANGEL DOWN is a work of creative genius. It’s also Daniel Kraus’s personal favorite thing of his that he has ever written. And this is saying a lot because the man is quite prolific having written YA and adult fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, television and film adaptations, and collaborated with the likes of Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) and posthumously with influential pioneer of the horror genre and the “father of the zombie film,” George R. Romero (Night of the Living Dead).

If this novel sounds out of your comfort zone, I say all the more reason to pick it up! I promise that you won’t have ever read anything remotely like it before.

Please join me in welcoming Daniel Kraus to Friends & Fiction, and in wishing him a very happy pub day today for ANGEL DOWN!

Tell us a bit about what ANGEL DOWN is about. And then, our favorite question at Friends & Fiction, what's the book really about?
It’s about five American privates in WWI who come across an angel that has been shot down by artillery fire. It could save them all, even save the world — but their individual desires to use the angel for their own purposes threatens to tear them apart.

What it’s really about is how we invited industrialized violence into the world and now seem unable and unwilling to stop it until it destroys all of us.

This novel is composed of one continuous sentence. Why were you inspired to take this unusual path in the construction of this story? How do you think it serves the narrative?
The sentence is a loop, effectively trapping you inside the book forever, which is a format that emulates the unstoppable wheel of industrialized warfare that began in earnest in WWI. It has the side benefit of making the prose as breathless as the men in the story, who never have time to think or pause, who are only able to survive one second longer.

What drew you to the WWI era as a setting for this novel?
I considered other wars, but WWI was really when the technology of war began to advance beyond the human element, when we were able to kill without ever having to look at the people we killed. There’s a direct line from WWI to nuclear warfare to military drones and the future AI tech that will end us all.

Publishers Weekly has said that, with ANGEL DOWN, "Kraus breathes new life into the war novel." What does this mean to you? Did you intentionally set out to change readers' view of war fiction?
I really wasn’t thinking of ANGEL DOWN within the pantheon of war novels, but obviously, there is a long American history of brilliant war novels, so I’m flattered. I suppose I always thought more that I was writing about the *concept* of war rather than a particular war — though I obviously did that too.

Your previous novel WHALEFALL is currently being adapted as a major motion picture for Ron Howard & Brian Glazer's Imagine Entertainment. How involved are you in this process? What can you tell us about where things are in the production cycle? Are you pleased with what you've seen so far?
The movie is being shot as we speak. My schedule has only allowed me to visit the set for a few days, but I am bowled over by what I’ve seen. There’s never been anything like it.

Any nibbles thus far that you can tell us about with an ANGEL DOWN screen adaptation?
Nope!

You are an incredibly prolific writer. In addition to your bestselling adult fiction, you have published award-winning YA novels, and you've written for film and television. You have also collaborated with masters of the horror world such as Guillermo del Toro and completed two works begun by legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. How does such diversity feed you as a creative? Do you have a preferred lane?
Diversity fuels everything I do. I read broadly, watch broadly, listen broadly, and write broadly. I don’t want to leave any genre or writing style unturned. Each one of the projects I’m doing at any given time are so radically different from one another, that they act as palate cleansers to one another. There’s rarely burnout, only inspiration upon inspiration.

What's next from you? More adult novels? YA books? Films? Collabs or solo work?
I have a middle-grade novel, The Joker’s On You, the fourth in the Graveyard Girls series that I co-author with Lisi Harrison, coming out on September 16, 2025 from Union Square Kids. Then, on October 7, 2025, Vault Comics will publish Athanasia, a graphic novel I wrote that is drawn by award-winning comic artist, Dani. On March 10, 2026 Counterpoint will publish Partially Devoured, a nonfiction book I wrote about Night of the Living Dead and my obsession with it. My next adult book is the sci-fi horror novel, The Sixth Nik, which will be released in July 2026 by Simon & Schuster’s Saga Press.

Where can our community catch up with you online and on the road?
DanielKraus.com is the place to go — and please subscribe to my newsletter, it’s the only reliable place to get news!

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About the Author

Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His novel Whalefall received a front-cover review in The New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and more. With Guillermo del Toro, he coauthored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar–winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus coauthored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. His also cowrote The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and more. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives with his wife in Chicago. Visit him at DanielKraus.com.

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About the Book

The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.

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.

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Reviews

“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.”
— The New York Times

“INCANDESCENTLY ANGRY.”
—The Washington Post

“This is a war novel for people who don’t like war novels — and a moral lesson for the ages.”
—People Magazine

“[STAR] A bold and exceptional novel with echoes of Clive Barker and Cormac McCarthy. Kraus has taken the classic war story and crafted something completely unique.”
—Library Journal

“[STAR] A brilliant novel that will encourage its readers to live their best lives, despite the horrors that surround them.”
—Booklist

“[STAR] Kraus ramps up the tension with the relentless cadence of his prose… With this vigorous narrative, Kraus breathes new life into the war novel.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Even more audacious than Whalefall. Kraus’s prose boldly resembles a prayer.”
—Chicago Tribune

“9.5/10. The most literarily ambitious, beautiful, biblical, wholly unholy, horrifying torrent of cosmos and violence and militarized trauma that I’ve ever read.”
—FanFiAddict

“An undeniable masterpiece.”
—Capes & Tights

“This captivating war thriller will entertain at every turn. “
—Chicago Review of Books

“Intense, surreal, and utterly gripping.”
—Bibliolifestyle

“A searing, frenzied, and haunting reminder that the horrors we most often face are the ones we create ourselves.”
—P. Djèlí Clark

“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

“A literary masterwork of unparalleled dexterity and ingenuity. One of the best things I’ve ever read. I’m absolutely blown away.”
—Josh Malerman

“A masterpiece.”
—Ally Wilkes

“Disorienting and utterly sublime. This book is a miracle.”
—Eric LaRocca

“The highest level of literary ambition, and the most gripping, unforgettable account of war in recent memory. American war fiction will 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

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