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Winter: The Story of a Season

Winter: The Story of a Season

by Val McDermid

Atlantic Monthly Press ·2025 ·160 pages
New Release
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
60/99
Top of the Pile

86/99

Critics' Rating Index

Maybe Someday

34/99

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About This Book

In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season's ever-evolving community-based traditions Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks. In Winter, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood—of skating over frozen lakes and carving a "neep" (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square—McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions. A hygge-filled journey through winter nights, McDermid reminds us that it is a time of rest, retreat and creativity, for scribbling in notebooks and settling in beside the fire. A treat for the hunkering-down, post-holiday reading season, Winter is a charming and cozy celebration of the year's idle months from one of Scotland's best-loved writers.


Reviews

"A charming memoir of sorts to treasure for all seasons ..."

Robert Allen Papinchak· Shelf Awareness Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Though the book's scope is modest, and there's little in the way of insight about her fiction-writing process, McDermid proves an amiable narrator with an endearing fondness for the year's dreariest months."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Near the Top

"McDermid's writing is lyrical, often profound, and thoroughly enjoyable."

Jane Murphy· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Instead, here, you can almost hear the carolers amid the snow and pan across the quiet fields."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"could not have come at a better time."

Ray Palen· Bookreporter Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"More than her memories; it is a celebration of all things cold, dark and Scottish."

Laurie Hertzel· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"It's a lovely, gentle little book, a warming meditation on the coldest, darkest time of the year ..."

Heller McAlpin· The Christian Science Monitor Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"An elegant little book ..."

Libby Purves· Times Literary Supplement Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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