From the masterful pen of the author of Pure and Oxygen comes a painfully acute dissection of resentment and betrayal, as two couples find themselves cut off from the rest of the world during the devastating winter of 1962.
December 1962, a small village near Bristol.
Eric and Irene and Bill and Rita. Two young couples living next to each other, the first in a beautiful cottage - suitable for a newly appointed local doctor - the second in a rundown, perennially under-heated farm. Despite their apparent differences, the two women (both pregnant) strike an easy friendship - a connection that comes as a respite from the surprising tediousness of married life, with its unfulfilled expectations, growing resentments and the ghosts of a recent past.
But as one of the coldest winters on record grips England in a never-ending frost and as the country is enveloped in a thick, soft, unmoving layer of snow, the two couples find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. And without the small distractions of everyday existence, suddenly old tensions and shocking new discoveries threaten to change the course of their lives forever.
A masterful, page-turning examination of the minutiae of life, The Land in Winter is a masterclass in storytelling - proof yet again that Andrew Miller is one of Britain's most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart.
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9781399743112
Number of pages: 384
Dimensions: 240 x 156 mm
Intrigue held my attention from the outset. An unsettling and, at times, depressing story of two couples living in a small country community in the depths of winter. Very different characters from different... More
Stunning. I inhaled this in three days at all hours, gripped by the tale of four lives lived through the extreme winter of 1962-3.
Irene and Eric, country doctor and his wife are expecting their first child. Across...
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What an absolute gem! Beautiful tender, insightful writing. The cold and fog are so wonderfully described, you almost feel a shiver. A truly talented writer .
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