Midwinter Break

by Bernard MacLaverty

Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith. Things are not helped by memories that resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland. As their vacation comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are - and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.

Bernard MacLaverty is a master storyteller, and this is the essential MacLaverty compassionate observation, elegant writing, and a heartrending story. It is also a profound examination of human love and how we live together - a chamber piece of resonance and power.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook

Audible Audio

Published August 22, 2017

About the author

Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast in 1942 and lived there until 1975 when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children. He has been a Medical Laboratory Technician, a mature student, a teacher of English and, for two years in the mid eighties, Writer-in-Residence at the University of Aberdeen.

After living for a time in Edinburgh and the Isle of Islay he now lives in Glasgow. He is a member of Aosdana in Ireland and is Visiting Writer/Professor at the University of Strathclyde.

Currently he is employed as a teacher of creative writing on a postgraduate course in prose fiction run by the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

He has published five collections of short stories and four novels. He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio plays, television plays, screenplays. Recently he wrote and directed a short film 'Bye-Child'

Reviews

[Isabel Catherine Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me sad. I find it really depressing and how the book ended it was pretty open in how it could turn out. I don't have a lot of hope for Gerry and Stella. We meet them on holiday at a kind of crossroads. We see them under a microscope in a minute time in their lives. Full of unhappiness and disappointment and heartache. Ugh now I just want to lie on the floor and think about this book.

[Donna Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this one was tough to rate. It's full of beautiful writing. It captures living life with someone, the simple sweetnesses and devastating disappointments. At times the story drags, but such is life and somehow adds to the point of the novel.

[Kathleen Celmins · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one can write sadness like the Irish and the Scots. This was an excellent book, and a quick read, but it made me not very fun to be around.

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were still living in London, would I take a midwinter break in Amsterdam? Hell, no; so why write or read a book about it? However, the Booker judges encouraged my curiosity and I’m glad I read such a well crafted, engaging novel. Moreover, it suits my age group as the couple, retired from a life in Belfast and past traumas, find their current life reduced to the less demanding problems of the first fall, the height of toilet seats in hotel bathrooms and the impossibility of manipulating the taps to give an even flow of hot water when showering. Despite Stella and Gerry devising various routine diversions such as the compulsory kiss in an empty lift and restricting one ‘ailment hour’ a week for their organ recital of aged health complaints, Stella is ‘tired of living the way we do’ and proposes the trip. When Gerry questions, she suggests that if he doesn’t come, they might end up living in different places, so he goes with her.
Maclaverty carried me into this marriage problem for old couples plot and soon overcame my doubts with his skilful observations of the relationship and his characters’ changing moods, especially Stella’s motivation in seeking out a better solution to life in the last quarter. He balances the serious tone of Stella’s yearning for a more satisfying life with a humorous observation of the couple in negotiation of the more trivial daily difficulties all of us ‘elders’ share, interspersed with their memories of trauma in the Belfast war which left physical as well as mental scars.
Having visited Amsterdam several times I was familiar with most of the places visited in the novel, such as the canals, the red light district and the Rijksmuseum with Rembrandt’s wonderful painting of The Jewish Bride, easy to contemplate because all the other tourists were crowded in front of The Night Watch. There is a key event in the Ann Frank House and the Begijnhof women’s house.
So, another Irish writer to enjoy and explore his other publications. You don’t have to be over 65 to appreciate Midwinter Break but those of us who are, will surely share more of the humour.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Torn between 3 and 4 stars.
This book is... slow. It's really a meditation on love, on marriage, on aging and trauma and religion and finding peace - whether that means making difficult choices and changes, or coming to terms with imperfect circumstances.
Nothing really happens. A couple decides to take a short holiday (a midwinter break, as it were). They travel from Scotland to Amsterdam, where they stay in hotel, go out to dinner, visit some museums and churches, do a little shopping, and travel home.
That's it. There are long narratives about trying to be quiet in the hotel room while someone is sleeping, or ordering coffee from a coffee shop. There is a surprising amount of time spent on a block of ice in front of their hotel. There are long stretches of memory - some time is spent dancing around a traumatic thing that happened it he past, but ultimately it's not all that exciting or revelatory. It's just that - a traumatic thing that happened in the past, that they both spend time recollecting.
It's a testament to the writing that I didn't dislike this. I really do prefer a book with a stronger narrative arc, but I enjoyed this. The writing is never cliched, no characters feel like stereotypes or caricatures (although really there are only two characters in the whole book). Their dialog, and reminiscing, their struggle in caring for a wholly familiar and wholly imperfect partner, their inability to acknowledge some simmering issues between them - it all felt honest, and thoughtful, and worth contemplating.
So I guess I'm going to give it 4 stars. It was really well written, and struck a tone perfectly... I just prefer my stories to have a little more story.

[t.s. · Rating 3 out of 5]

maclaverty successfully portrays the decades-long marriage of gerry and stella through an unusually large slice of life—perhaps a slice too generous for some appetites. we follow the couple from ireland to amsterdam, where even their travel feels mundane.

the novel feels like spending a very long weekend with your grandparents—no streaming services, no cell phones, just conversations you can't escape. you feel every single minute.

the novel unfolds through beautifully written, plodding prose, a deliberate slowness seems to be the point.

i did enjoy their "ailment hour," a daily ritual devoted exclusively to cataloging aches and injuries. in many ways, the novel itself becomes an extended version of that hour—an endurance exercise in routine, complaint, and quiet dissatisfaction.

[Andrea Shirey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I snagged this on Hoopla after seeing the movie trailer. The trailer had it all - music, Irish accents, intrigue, and beautiful cinematography. However, the book fell pretty flat for me. I love a slow burn and I don't mind a "heavy on the character, light on the plot" book. But, this one just didn't deliver on either front for me. The "secret" they tease in the movie, is um, not much of a secret, to start. And it just felt like it should build to something, but never did. It is a deep look into a long marriage, and I appreciate the realistic take on that. I tend to stick to books longer on audio, but if this was in print, I would probably have put it down 1/4 of the way through. I listened comfortably at 1.3 and the narrator was very slow. Not a great read for me, and I'll probably skip the movie.

[Bonnie Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure about this book. The author is a pretty good story. Definitely some beautiful descriptives. You can get lost looking through the author's eyes. There is a lot of time travel via memories of both of the protagonists. The movie is coming out soon. I cannot imagine how they will make it work either tell the (memory stories) first or flash back and forth, which always confused me a lot (I'm old and my mind doesn't switch back and forth as well as it used to.

It is a love story but not in the contemporary sense, ie no sex. Suck it!

[Norma Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet and moving study on an aging, retired couple, Gerry and Stella, on a short holiday in Amsterdam that turns into a moment of reckoning for their marriage. A poignant read about the resilience of human love.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written though quite sad

[Jo Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really care for the writing style. This book made me very sad. I’d give it a 3.5

[Shelly Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, though I found some of the details to be a bit much.

[Susan Taylor]

Barely a 3. So melancholy. Stella is so unhappy in her marriage. Gerry drinks too much and does not possess the same religious beliefs as Irish Catholic Stella. In retirement Gerry feels alls fine but Stella just can’t take it anymore. She plans a vacation in Amsterdam, the only saving grace for me in the story; having just returned from there. This vacation does not help with the distance. At the end we find out a secret that Stella has hidden her adult life & the struggle she has lived.