My WINTER Books Special

A Literary WINTER Expedition
from 1 December 2014 to 28 February 2015

Last year I dedicated the month of December to novels connected to Christmas. This year I decided to make a three-month special featuring books with the word WINTER in the English title. Admittedly it’s a rather arbitrary way to choose a read, but it brought surprisingly many literary works to my attention which I might never ever have come across otherwise because they have never been on bestselling lists and/or the author isn’t particularly renowned (any longer).

The result of my extensive search is an interesting and varied list of 50 books, mainly novels and a few collections of short stories, but also the one or other non-fiction. Lamentably I was forced to rule out from review several works of non-English-speaking authors since I couldn’t find any English editions. From the remaining lot I picked thirteen books, some famous, some new, and some forgotten ones. As for the rest of my WINTER bibliography… maybe some other time!

And here’s my review list with the links to my reviews (subject to change):

• Maeve Binchy: A Week in Winter (2012)
• Antoine Blondin: A Monkey in Winter, original French title: Un singe en hiver (1959)
• John Buchan: Midwinter (1923)
• Italo Calvino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, original Italian title: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979)
• Isak Dinesen (aka as Karen Blixen): Winter’s Tales (1942)
• Dorothy Edwards: Winter Sonata (1928)
• Evelyn Grill: Winter Quarters, original German title: Winterquartier (1993)
• Mark Helprin: Winter's Tale (1983)
• Anaïs Nin: The Winter of Artifice (1939)
• Eva Stachniak: The Winter Palace (2012)
• John Steinbeck: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
• Philip Teir: The Winter War, original Swedish title: Vinterkriget: en äktenskapsroman (2013)
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán: Autumn and Winter Sonatas, original Spanish title: Sonata de otoño. Sonata de invierno (1902/1905)

Other WINTER Books which might be interesting although I don’t intend to read or review them right now:

• Vassily Aksyonov: Generations of Winter, original Russian title: Московская сага (1992)
• Ignacio Manuel Altamirano: Cuentos de invierno (1880), no English edition found
• Paul Auster: Winter Journal (2012)
• Amelia Edith Barr: Winter Evening Tales (1896)
• Marie Billet: Au milieu de l’hiver (2014), no English edition found
• Ronald Blythe: The View in Winter. Reflections on Old Age (1979)
• Emmanuel Bove: A Winter’s Journal, original French title: Journal – écrit en hiver (1931)
• Elizabeth Bowen: Seven Winters: Memories of a Dublin Childhood (1942)
• John Burroughs: Winter Sunshine (1875)
• Jaume Cabré: Winter Journey, original Catalan title: Viatge d’hivern (2000)
• Bernard Edward Joseph Capes: At a Winter’s Fire (1899)
• Marchesa Colombi: Serate d'inverno (1879), no English edition found
• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, original Russian title: Зимние заметки о летних впечатлениях (1863)
• Per Olov Enquist: The Magnetist's Fifth Winter, original Swedish title: Magnetisörens femte vinter (1964)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams (1922), seldom published as a single edition
• Ken Follet: Winter of the World (2012)
• Henry James: A New England Winter (1884)
• Tove Jansson: A Winter Book, original Swedish title: Meddelande (1998)
• Daphne Kalotay: Russian Winter (2010)
• Susanna Kearsley: The Winter Sea (2008)
• Paul Keller: Waldwinter (1902), no English edition found
• Kitakata Kenzo: Winter Sleep, original Japanese title: 冬の眠り (1996)
• Philip Larkin: A Girl in Winter (1947)
• Doris Lessing: Winter in July (1951), seldom published as a single edition
• Valerio Massimo Manfredi: A Winter’s Night, original Italian title: Otel Bruni (2011)
• Hubert Mingarelli: A Meal in Winter, original French title: Un repas en hiver (2012)
• Caroline Moorehead: A Train in Winter (2012)
• Antonio Muñoz Molina: Winter in Lisbon, original Spanish title: El invierno en Lisboa (1987)
• Amélie Nothomb: Voyage d’hiver (2009), no English edition found
• Arthur Quiller-Couch: Two Sides of the Face. Midwinter Tales (1903)
• Władysław Stanisław Reymont: The Peasants. Part 2: Winter, original Polish title: Chłopi. Tom 2: Zima (1904)
• Gerhard Roth: Winterreise (1978), no English edition found
• George Sand: Winter in Majorca, original title: Un hiver à Majorque (1855)
• Silvia Townsend Warner: Winter in the Air and Other Stories (1955)
• Jules Verne: A Winter Amid the Ice and Other Thrilling Stories, original title: Un hivernage dans les glaces (1855)
• Angélique Villeneuve: Les fleurs d’hiver (2014), no English edition found
• Hugh Walpole: Wintersmoon (1928)