The Land in Winter - Andrew Miller

nTender, elegant, soulful and perfect.--Samantha Harvey, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital n nWinner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, The Land in Winter is a deft, page-turning examination of married life and a masterclass in storytelling from Booker-shortlisted author Andrew Miller. n nDecember 1962: In an English village deep in the West Country, two couples on neighboring farms begin their day. Local doctor Eric Parry, keeping secrets, commences his daily rounds to patients; his pregnant wife, Irene, lies in the warmth of their cottage, mulling over the detachment that has somehow sprung up between them in the past few years.

n nAcross from her and over the adjacent field, in a farmhouse that is never warm enough, sits Irene's mirror image. Funny but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting; she spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer's wife, while her head is still full of images of a raucous past life that her husband prefers to ignore. He's been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy they live on--a place where he hoped to create a new version of himself apart from the shady workings of his father.

n nWhen Rita and Irene meet across the long bare field between their homes, a clock starts. There is affection--if not always love--in both houses: these are marriages that still hold some promise. But when the ordinary cold of an English December gives way to violent blizzards--a true winter, the harshest in living memory--the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel.

Over one historic winter in a land still underpinned by the shadow of the last world war, Andrew Miller proves himself yet again as one of Britain's most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart. n nAndrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight.--Hilary Mantel n