Kristen den Hartog

With unflinching intimacy and tenderness, Kristen den Hartog documents the lives of some of the thousands of permanently disabled young Canadians who returned after the conflict, as well as examining the society that greeted them once they arrived. Gripped by the pathos and courage of these lives, and by the empathy of the doctors and nurses who attended to them, my knowledge of my country — and my self — was changed by The Roosting Box. A major accomplishment!

Jane Urquhart
author of The Stone Carvers

Treating the ex-soldiers were their doctors and nurses, and den Hartog brilliantly mixes the stories of them all together. This is a book about individuals in a collective of pain, suffering, and medical successes and failures. … Den Hartog’s prose is excellent, her understanding of the military is correct, and her book is revelatory.

JL Granatstein
Literary Review of Canada

Kristen den Hartog has written a deeply moving story of what war can do to the body, and what the spirit can do along the road to recovery. Written with empathy and intimacy, The Roosting Box is a book full of tragedy that ultimately carries a profound message of hope.

Jonathan F. Vance
author of The True Story of the Great Escape: Stalag Luft III, March 1944

This new peculiarly-named history by the Toronto native is well-researched, beautifully written and full of surprises. … [The Roosting Box] is a valuable reminder of the sometimes primitive and sometimes startlingly innovative history of medicine in the early to mid- twentieth century. And of the appalling conditions and inevitable results of war. … The writing is flawless.

The Passionate Reader

Kristen den Hartog’s The Roosting Box is a masterfully written and deeply moving mix of history and story. A cash register factory converted during World War I into Toronto’s Christie Street Hospital becomes for many a place of refuge to heal in “a magical time, given that magic can be dark or bright or both at once.” At the heart of this book, den Hartog chronicles the physical and mental challenges faced by ordinary people: soldiers, veterans, nurses, hospital staff, and doctors. She delves further into the families touched by the ripple-effects of war—wives, children, siblings, friends—weaving their personal reflections to create an intimate tapestry of a lives lived. In examining the horrific things done to people’s minds, their bodies and spirits, The Roosting Box meanders through time, but always returns to a place of healing. Heartbreaking and humane, den Hartog captures a city and a nation during a transformative time of loss and hope.

Jury citation
2024 Toronto Book Awards

Whoever you are, I can likely promise you that The Roosting Box … is not like any book you’ve read before. … Kristen den Hartog has brought a piece of Toronto’s history to life, and the effect is pretty dazzling.

Kerry Clare
author of Asking For a Friend

Kristen den Hartog has written a timely story. Her book offers a new life to memory long past.  She has humanised the plight of a wounded soldier.

Barry Mutter
Happenstance Books & Yarns

The photographs are striking and the use of primary sources impressive, particularly the decision to include poetry of the time in fragments to enhance exposition—but it’s really all about the stories, of the men and those who loved them and those who aimed to serve their needs (often other veterans in need).  And not Toronto stories after all, but wartime stories: as we witness historic alliances shift in response to power wielded by dictators today, it is surprisingly relevant to revisit historic conflicts in the context of everyday people’s lives. 

Buried In Print 

Den Hartog deftly weaves in lines from war poets — none of whom survived the war — to breathe life and authenticity into her own graceful and expressive prose. Truly this is a lyrical work of literary non-fiction. 

Heather McBriarty
The Miramichi Reader

As battles recede in time, the pain they inflict is often softened with memorials, parades, and outbursts of national pride. Kristen den Hartog doesn’t go much for softening. Her carefully researched, beautifully written, altogether fascinating account of Toronto’s Christie Street Hospital in the years during and following the First World War is an unblinking time machine. The Roosting Box compels us to look directly at the result of military action: wounds, burns, amputations, sickness, madness, shattered lives, death. This stunning book is the real history of a war. All war.

David MacFarlane
author of The Danger Tree

In this evocative history, Kristen den Hartog explores the legacy of Canada’s wounded Great War soldiers and Toronto’s Christie Street Hospital. … [She] writes with a novelist’s eye and tremendous sympathy for her subjects. … fascinating if difficult reading.

Tim Cook
Canada’s History

Her graceful writing style and thorough research make the grisly subject matter a little more palatable, but not much. Nonetheless, this book should be included in the reading list for senior high school history courses.

Gordon Arnold
Winnipeg Free Press