A Long Winter

SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM An unforgettable story about loss and new love from Colm Tóibín, the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island. 'The most striking example of Tóibín's emotional control . . . [An] eloquent expression of the bond between a mother and a son' – The Guardian One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves. Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter. Miquel’s desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house. As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother's absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life. ' A Long Winter evokes loss, loneliness, guilt and survival in a few masterly strokes' – Independent

SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM An unforgettable story about loss and new love from Colm Tóibín, the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island. 'The most striking example of Tóibín's emotional control . . . [An] eloquent expression of the bond between a mother and a son' – The Guardian One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves. Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter. Miquel’s desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house. As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother's absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life. ' A Long Winter evokes loss, loneliness, guilt and survival in a few masterly strokes' – Independent

Available for the first time in a beautiful standalone edition, one of Colm T?ib?n's finest short stories and "the most striking example of T?ibin's emotional control" ( The Guardian ), "A Long Winter," is set in the mountains of Catalonia in Spain--includes a new afterword by the author on how he came to write the story. A young man named Miquel returns to his family in the Catalan Pyrenees upon completing his military service. His younger brother, Jordi, will be departing for his service a week after Miquel's arrival. He will be gone for two years. Miquel notices their mother's increasingly erratic behavior and understands that she is drinking. As she becomes increasingly unstable, her husband resorts to drastic measures. Unable to abide his betrayal and her own grief, she walks off into the mountains. A blizzard sets in and the search for her is futile. No one will find her until the spring thaw arrives. A gorgeous story of loss, grief, and longing, "A Long Winter" describes an extraordinary bond between a mother and son and a haunting portrait of a family in crisis. T?ib?n's powers of imagination and transfixing emotional insight are on full display.

Available for the first time in a beautiful standalone edition, one of Colm T?ib?n's finest short stories and "the most striking example of T?ibin's emotional control" ( The Guardian ), "A Long Winter," is set in the mountains of Catalonia in Spain--includes a new afterword by the author on how he came to write the story. A young man named Miquel returns to his family in the Catalan Pyrenees upon completing his military service. His younger brother, Jordi, will be departing for his service a week after Miquel's arrival. He will be gone for two years. Miquel notices their mother's increasingly erratic behavior and understands that she is drinking. As she becomes increasingly unstable, her husband resorts to drastic measures. Unable to abide his betrayal and her own grief, she walks off into the mountains. A blizzard sets in and the search for her is futile. No one will find her until the spring thaw arrives. A gorgeous story of loss, grief, and longing, "A Long Winter" describes an extraordinary bond between a mother and son and a haunting portrait of a family in crisis. T?ib?n's powers of imagination and transfixing emotional insight are on full display.