Midwinter – Fiona Melrose
I decided to read this novel as Mercy from Mercy’s Bookish Musings recommended it (and I usually like what she likes). And, what clinched the matter was that it was available at the library.
Here’s the blurb …
Father and Son, Landyn and Vale Midwinter, are men of the land. Suffolk farmers. Times are hard and they struggle to sustain their property, their livelihood and their heritage in the face of competition from big business.
But an even bigger, more brutal fight is brewing: a fight between each other, about the horrible death of Cecelia, beloved wife and mother, in Zambia ten years earlier. A past they have both refused to confront until now.
Over the course of a particularly mauling Suffolk winter, Landyn and Vale grapple with their memories and their pain, raking over what remains of their fragile family unit, constantly at odds and under threat of falling apart forever. While Vale makes increasingly desperate decisions, Landyn retreats, finding solace in the land, his animals – and a fox who haunts the farm and seems to bring with her both comfort and protection.
Alive to language and nature, Midwinter is a novel about guilt, blame and lost opportunities. Ultimately it is a story about love and the lengths we will go to find our way home.
This is a slow, quiet story about a father and son always at loggerheads. It is told from both perspectives – alternating chapters – and so we, the readers, can see how they want to connect with each other, but they always manage to say the wrong thing.
Landscape is very much a part of this novel: the cold damp of Suffolk and the baking heat of Africa. This is also a farmer’s story – the love of the land, the desire to pass it on to the next generation (at what cost?), livestock and the importance of treating animals well and how hard it is to make a living on the land.
More reviews …
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/16/midwinter-by-fiona-melrose-reivew