Winter Break: A Luminous Journey into Wisdom and Love

by Astrid Fitzgerald

On the first day of a family ski vacation, Caroline is introduced to Lorenzo, a handsome philosophy student from Florence by her friend Sylvia. Dancing at a disco into the evening, they miss the last ski lift to their chalets, and, unwisely, ascend on foot, losing their way in a blinding blizzard and nearly die of exposure. Her frantic parents react by grounding Caroline, but sneaking out to look for her lost ski, she descends into a deep gully and enters a mysterious world that changes her life forever. The everyday world of stressed-out, argumentative parents, demanding friends, ski classes and holiday cheer gives way to a new reality where Caroline discovers who she really is and what life truly means – the kind of things she’d never heard of in school. Armed with new clarity and stillness in the midst of powerful feelings, she returns to school, where unexpected challenges test her new-found knowledge, understanding and intuitive powers. Full of mystery, adventure, crisis and romance, this novel for teen and adult readers offers the added dimension of providing a thoughtful, reflective, and non-dogmatic guide to a meaningful, self-reliant and conscious life.

*** Winner of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award, and Finalist in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year competition and an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Quarterfinals Award ***

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2012