Midwinter Break
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:4th Jan '18
Should be back in stock very soon
An intense exploration of love and uncertainty when a long-married couple take a midwinter break in Amsterdam.
A retired couple, Gerry and Stella Gilmore, fly from their home in Scotland to Amsterdam for a long weekend. A holiday to refresh the senses, and generally to take stock of what remains of their lives. Their relationship seems safe, easy, familiar - but over the course of the four days we discover the deep uncertainties which exist between them.
A Guardian / Sunday Times / Irish Times / Herald Scotland / Mail on Sunday Book of the Year
Winner of the Bord Gáis Novel of the Year
‘Midwinter Break is a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms – to an honest reckoning – with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain...this is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers’ Colm Tóibín
A retired couple, Gerry and Stella Gilmore, fly to Amsterdam for a midwinter break. A holiday to refresh the senses, to see the sights and to generally take stock of what remains of their lives. But amongst the wintry streets and icy canals we see their relationship fracturing beneath the surface. And when memories re-emerge of a troubled time in their native Ireland things begin to fall apart. As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are – and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.
Its portrayal of the tightening vice of alcohol addiction is unparalleled. But its profound exploration of its love, companionship, faith, work and our search for meaning in life made it a tender masterpiece, and one of the year’s essential reads. -- Justine Jordan * Guardian, **Books of the Year** *
MacLaverty doesn’t publish novels very often but when he does they are outstanding. -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times, **Books of the Year** *
A gem of a novel. -- Allan Hunter * Herald Scotland, **Books of the Year** *
Alive with utterly convincing actuality, this affecting, funny and acute book is a triumph of quiet masterliness. -- Peter Kemp * Herald Scotland, **Books of the Year** *
It's an immersive and astonishing book. -- Jackie Kay * Herald Scotland, **Books of the Year** *
[An] intense, emotionally vivid portrait of an elderly couple’s relationship in crisis. -- James Marriott * The Times, **Books of the Year** *
A marriage under strain after 40 years? A mini-break marred by bitter cold weather? An escapist dream that’s about to be nixed by reality? Gloomy though it sounds, this warm, intimate portrait of ageing love is one of the wittiest, wisest novels of the year. * Mail on Sunday, **Books of the Year** *
Midwinter Break is a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms - to an honest reckoning - with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain. Full of scenes that are rendered with exquisite accuracy and care, allowing the most detailed physical descriptions to be placed against the possibility of a rich spiritual life, this is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers. -- Colm Tóibín
A quiet, brilliantly written novel that packs a tremendous punch. -- Penelope Lively
An artist with a subtle feel for the ordinary, MacLaverty’s wry, outstanding novel about the tests that time, age and life impose on love resonates with humanity and emotional intelligence. -- Eileen Battersby * Financial Times *
- Winner of Bord G is Energy Irish Book Awards - Eason Novel of the Year 2017 (UK)
- Short-listed for Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2017 (UK)
- Short-listed for Kerry Group Novel of the Year 2018 (UK)
- Long-listed for Wellcome Book Prize 2018 (UK)
ISBN: 9781784704919
Dimensions: 197mm x 130mm x 15mm
Weight: 179g
256 pages