Midwinter

Father and Son, Landyn and Vale Midwinter, are Suffolk farmers, living together on land their family has worked for generations. But they are haunted there by a past they have long refused to confront: the death of
Cecelia, beloved wife and mother, when Vale was just a child. Both men have carried her loss, unspoken. Until now.

With the onset of a mauling winter, something between them snaps.

While Vale makes increasingly desperate decisions, Landyn retreats, finding solace in the land, his animals - and a vixen who haunts the farm and seems to bring with her both comfort and protection.

Tender and lyrical, alive to language and nature, Midwinter is a novel about guilt, blame, lost opportunities and, ultimately, it is a story about love and the lengths we will go to find our way home.

The opening scenes of Fiona Melrose's debut, Midwinter, could hardly be more gripping; but the novel she hangs on the hook of that action-packed beginning is something quieter, broader, and more considered than it initially gives you reason to expect . . . Finely judged writing like this comes from a place of instinct, and it marks Melrose out as someone to watch . . . Midwinter is a great success. - Melissa Harrison, The Guardian, Book of the Day

In this quietly stunning debut the author Fiona Melrose has created a moving and astutely drawn playing out of a family crisis. . . . Fiona has that rarest gift of breathing life into her characters, as well as the worlds in which they live. - Essie Fox, author of Elijah's Mermaid

Melrose elegantly weaves narratives detailing the men's internal tumult with lush descriptions of their natural surroundings . . . A moving story about the cruelty of chance, modern masculinity and the transformative power of the bonds between men. -Financial Times

I have rarely read a narrative voice as distinctive as Landyn's, and the loving depiction of regional English working-class masculinity is unusual and timely . . . This is certainly not a light-hearted book, but it offers the true consolation of some very good writing - Sarah Moss, TLS

A fabulously frosty tale of the bleak Suffolk countryside . . with gorgeously understated prose and a keen eye for nature. It deserves to be read in front of a fire with the wind roaring outside. - Alex Preston, Observer

The descriptions of the natural world, both in Suffolk and Zambia, are impressive, but it's the portrayal of human despair that hits hardest . . . The novel is a penetrating study of grief and guilt. - Daily Mail

Luminous... you fall in love with a story like this one. - Chicago Tribune Audio Review

The emotions between the pair are a hot, raw burn of guilt, recrimination and misplaced affection . . . It's a beautifully perceptive story that will stay with you. - Express

A beautifully perceptive debut - Psychologies

Visceral, beautiful and heartwrenching. - Morgan McCarthy, author of The House of Birds