Midwinter

by Fiona Melrose

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 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.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, South Africa, Audiobook, Adult

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2016

About the author

Fiona Melrose was born in Johannesburg but has spent the majority of her adult life in the UK, first in London and then in East Anglia. She moved to Suffolk to concentrate on her writing and it is there that Midwinter was conceived. Previously Fiona has worked in academia, NGO's, public affairs and as an emerging markets analyst. She continues to keep a foot in both continents and is currently spending the majority of her time back in South Africa where she is completing her second novel.

Reviews

[Helene Jeppesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked up this beautiful novel, I had no expectations that I was going to like it as much as I did. I didn't know the author and I didn't know much about the story, and I was a bit unsure as to whether this would be an intense poetic winter story or not (based on the cover alone).
I'm still not sure whether it deserves a complete five stars from me but it's definitely up there. There was something so raw and honest about this son and father that we hear about that really appealed to me. Vale, the son, is messed up because of reasons we hear about throughout the novel. His father, Landyn, is struggling as well but was such an endearing character to me. But the town that they live in is what appealed to me the most, for some reason. It felt wintry, it felt local and it felt right.
There is definitely more to this book than just a beautiful cover. It's a unique narrative about anger, loss and guilt and I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. It impressed me a lot, and I highly recommend that you check out this story which seems simple on the outside but which is so deep and well thought through on the inside.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably more of a 3.5 star read for me, rounded up, because I stalled in a major way at one point, and didn't think the dips into Zambia were necessary (in fact it felt a bit like using the "other" as the easy villain when there are worse villains at hand - alcoholism, poverty, disappointment.) Other than my minor complaints, I enjoyed the focused story of a father and son dealing with grief and anger and struggling through two major incidents in their lives, one more recent than the other. It helped to have the chapters alternate between father and son.

I would look forward to another book by this author.

[Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I absolutely loved this. Quiet and dark, lovely and brutal, gorgeously written. This explores masculinity, adolescence, anger, and grief, and the two voices (of a father and son) are distinct, raw, and memorable. I've never been so glad to be so thoroughly depressed.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) It was a definite case of judging a book by its cover: I saw a photo of Fiona Melrose’s debut novel on Twitter and – without reading much about it at all – sent off a quick request e-mail to the publisher. All I knew was that it was about a father and son, that it was set in Suffolk, that a fox featured somewhere, and that Zambia was involved somehow. But that was enough to convince me that this was a book I wanted to read.

I had assumed the title would refer to the novel’s setting; although it does take place during the colder months of the year, Midwinter is also the main characters’ last name. Landyn Midwinter and his twenty-year-old son, Vale, are farmers in the Suffolk countryside. They’re both joined and divided by the memory of Vale’s mum Cecilia’s violent death ten years ago in Zambia, where the family had gone to seek their fortune after money troubles on the English farm. Vale blames Landyn for Cessie’s murder, and the past still fuels explosions between them in the present day.

The novel opens with Vale and his best friend, Tom, who were raised like brothers, stealing a boat and going for a drunken nighttime sail. This scene reminded me of the cataclysmic maritime sections of Wyl Menmuir’s The Many and ends in near-disaster. Vale is fine, but as Tom spends the next weeks in hospital it becomes clear that he will not escape undamaged. Vale and Landyn don’t see eye to eye about what Vale owes his friend; they also disagree about Landyn’s sentimental attitude towards animals: farm dogs and chickens, as well as a vixen he is thrilled to see on his land, thinking of her as an emissary from his lost wife.

Vale and Landyn narrate the book in alternating first-person chapters. It’s their country voices and the father–son theme that drive the story. “It could never be the end for me and Vale,” Landyn says. “I didn’t have a choice in it. Been like that how many times since Cessie passed, all beaten and tired and nothing left.” And yet Vale “cut me right where he knew there was fresh meat, the type that doesn’t knit.” Landyn’s voice worked better for me, but I liked how the same themes crop up for both men as they go through the motions of everyday farming life: guilt over bad decisions, a hot temper, and awkwardness around women.

Past and present coexist stylishly through flashbacks to the Midwinters’ brief time in Africa, and there are several climactic scenes of animal deaths, one quite gruesome – something to keep in mind if you are sensitive to such things.

At a certain point, though, the novel started feeling repetitive to me. Some incidents are recounted from both points of view, but the repetition doesn’t add anything. I thought the book could stand to lose 40–60 pages – page 224 would have served as a perfectly good ending, for instance. In fact, the whole thing feels like an early draft: it’s surprisingly poorly edited in terms of punctuation, typos and compound words.

In all, I think this edition of Melrose’s debut novel doesn’t do her justice. Luckily, I was impressed enough by her elegant treatment of fraught relationships and ongoing guilt that I will still be looking out for her future work.

My thanks to Helen Upton of Little, Brown for the free review copy.

Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decade ago in Zambia, Cecelia died at home at the hands of a mob. It was a death that still affects Landyn and Vale Midwinter, father and son. Now back in Suffolk, they are both still raw and haunted by her death and frequently descend into rows and fights. It is after one of these major falling outs that Vale ends up getting plastered with a friend of his called Tom. They decide to steal a boat and because they are so drunk, just about survive an accident.

As they recover from their injuries, the father and son start to look back at the events that brought them to this night. It is a painful process for both as they are full of anguish a decade after the event. Alternating between their perspectives we learn about the landscape of Zambia and how tough a life it was out there to Suffolk where they are now. As each man contemplates the sharp elements of his grief, we learn how they grasp for crumbs of comfort for the lady that they lost all that time ago.

It took a little while for me to get into this book. The flipping between the father and son and the harsh African and gritty English landscapes is slightly unnerving and the story seeps into you. I couldn't quite see where it was going, then something clicked in the story and Melrose's power as a storyteller made this quite a poignant book showing how people deal, or more correctly don't cope with, the long-term effects of grief. I liked the prose too, it has the same wistful melancholy to At Hawthorn time by Melissa Harrison. Will definitely be reading Johannesburg by her.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing debut. Ten years after the mom's tragic death, the unresolved grief of a 20-year-old Suffolk lad and his folksy, big-hearted farmer of a dad is at the breaking point: will these men crack apart, or open? A few problems with narrative pacing barely detracted at all from the deep, rich characterization or the novel's emotional power. Pa Landyn Midwinter may just be my favorite male character, ever. Keep the tissue box handy.

[Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unequivocally beautiful but so so harsh and difficult. It wasn’t the book for me at this moment, and it’s darkness made me feel very dark, but Fiona Melrose is a gifted stylist. She invokes Suffolk and the rough emotion of a dying kind of rural culture very well. It’s brutal but painfully heart-felt. Do read it, when you’re feeling strong of mind.

[Kinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly crafted novel about grief, full of unspoken feelings and guilt. It's a slow read, with plenty of atmosphere. Vale and Landyn live and farm in Suffolk, but I found the descriptions of the Suffolk landscape a bit too harsh. I never find Suffolk bare and unforgiving, and, at times, I felt I was reading a book set in the Canadian prairies. But Fiona Melrose uses the very harsh winter to strengthen the feeling of despair and anger felt by Vale, Landyn and even Tom.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captures the fierce love of the land and its creatures of farmers everywhere. Also an indictment of the 'stiff upper lip' or manliness which refuses to talk about pain and grief. Some beautiful passages and sentences, polished like gemstones.

[thehalcyondaysofsummer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opening lines: ‘Think about a fox.’

[Karen Mace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a stunning looking book and one of those stories that slowly creeps into your soul as you watch over these 2 men who are struggling to come to terms with grief and the loss they both feel.

The father and son aspect worked really well as the story tells of how they both deal - not very well! - in their lives with so many emotions bubbling up after the loss of their loved one. They've tried to avoid their feelings over the years and it reaches a point where their relationship is suffering as they both take their anger out on the wrong people.

Not only are they struggling with their personal lives, but they're struggling in their work lives too on the farm and this book really captures the hard times they both face and how they need to confront the sadness and work together to keep a hold of their lives and sanity.

I found this took a little while to get into but once I'd learnt more of the characters I was soon under the spell and it was often a brutal but heartwrenching read made more fascinating by the emotions of men, not used to sharing their feelings, being explored. Stunning and beautifully written read.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was held in a kind of spell while reading Midwinter. Fiona Melrose's prose has a hypnotic quality: sometimes violent, often sensitive, always lyrical. The descriptions of the landscapes and people of Suffolk and Zambia are beautifully evocative. I loved the depiction of the troubled relationship between the father and his son (which is the heart of this novel, I feel), and the mysterious presence of the fox, a beautiful vixen the father, Landyn, becomes fascinated by. All the stark brutality of nature is laid bare in Midwinter, along with the human despair felt on the death of beloved animals. But there is not an ounce of sentimentality in this extraordinary novel. I wouldn't be surprised if Midwinter found its way onto prize lists. It certainly deserves to.

[Elizabeth Raines · Rating 2 out of 5]

We were not given enough time period to really get to know these characters. The setting was like the title suggests, dreary and wintery feeling. All of the blurbs on the cover, suggest the writing in here was top notch but it was not that for me. It was bland and dull. The same can be said for the plot. This is a story of two people, father and son, dealing with grief. So much more could have been done with that. This could have been a moving story.

[Alex Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Well written and engaging.

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very seldom at a loss for words when it comes to books; but after closing this debut novel by Fiona Melrose, I find myself tongue-tied -- yet strangely elated and at the same time just a little bit tearful. I'm fairly certain that mere words will not be sufficient to convey the roller coaster ride of conflicting emotions I experienced while reading this tale of a Suffolk father and son embroiled in a situation of complex and relentless strife that intensifies as a bitter and seemingly endless winter takes its toll on man and beast.

The father in question is Landyn Midwinter, the latest man farming the land that has been in possession of the Midwinter family for generations. When financial difficulties start to hamstring him, and the stress of holding on to the land at all cost begins to exert tremendous strain on the continued happiness of his marriage to Cecelia, a solution of sorts presents itself when he is practically at the end of his tether. He reads about a Zambian government scheme in terms of which the know-how of experienced farmers is recruited to assist the development of the African country's lagging farming sector. The perks involved are too good not to warrant serious consideration, and eventually the move to a strange and little-known country becomes a reality for Landyn, Cecelia and their young son Vale.

The main action of the novel is centered around Landyn and Vale ten years after their return to the Suffolk farm in the aftermath of the Zambian tragedy that deprived them of a wife and a mother. Vale is now a twenty-year-old young man, emotionally-stunted and still suffering deeply from the traumatic loss of his mother in horrific circumstances. Both father and son live under a dark shadow of memories, regrets and longing that causes their relationship to teeter on the edge of an irrevocable breakdown. When Vale finally accuses Landyn openly of being instrumental in bringing about Cecelia's death, the battle lines are drawn.

I think Fiona Melrose's novel succeeds on two counts. First of all, she manages an evocation of landscape -- the Suffolk countryside in the dead of winter, and a dusty Zambian farm under a searing African sun -- that had me vainly trying to recall if I had ever before read such gorgeously effective depictions of nature in all its extremes. Surely, I must have; but in any given moment -- under the spell of her lyrical prose -- I was convinced that I hadn't. Certainly, the rigors of an unforgiving and settled-in winter are sketched with such convincing power that I felt my heart encrusted in ice while snow sifted down and "you couldn't sleep for the horrible bleating and crying of the ewes as their little ones died, one by one".

Secondly, the meticulously shaded characterizations breathe glowing life into Landyn and Vale. In the case of Landyn, the author reveals with deft strokes an ageing man acutely aware of the mistakes he has made and despite it all exhibiting a compassionate tenderness for his estranged son. In the case of the rebellious Vale, she manages to make his debilitating anger and confusion totally believable to the extent that the reader feels a profound empathy for him.

I have to single out the bond between Landyn and his beloved dog, and also his curious quasi-supernatural attachment to a handsome vixen that haunts his land and his mind. There are obvious symbolic parallels to be drawn as far as both these animals are concerned, and I will not go into that. But in Landyn's care and concern for both Pup and the fox yet another layer is added to the narrative to make it an even richer and more satisfying read.

Lastly, the cover of this edition is a thing of rare beauty. It is not often that I would be moved to comment on art work adorning a book cover, but in this particular instance it captures the contents of the novel perfectly.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Landyn et Vale Midwinter, père et fils, sont agriculteurs dans le Suffolk, une région pauvre d'Angleterre où, derrière les jolis paysages, les marais et les adorables fermes se cachent le travail dur et ingrat de la ferme, les difficultés financières, le manque de perspective pour les jeunes, qui trouvent une échappatoire dans les soirées largement arrosées. Mais, au-delà de ce quotidien rude, les Midwinter sont tourmentés par la mort brutale de Cecelia Midwinter en Zambie des années auparavant. Ce souvenir douloureux refait surface alors que Vale est un jeune homme et réalise que son père est indirectement responsable de ce qui s'est produit. S'enchaînent ainsi les récits croisés des deux hommes qui, chacun à leur tour, avec une voix d'emblée reconnaissable, vont relater les mêmes évènements du quotidien et revenir sur cette période où la famille a fui la misère en participant à un programme agricole attractif en Afrique.

Premier roman âpre, sauvage et très maîtrisé, Midwinter nous plonge dans un milieu extrêmement masculin, où, pourtant, les rares figures féminines ont une influence indéniable sur le père et son fils, qu'il s'agisse de la mère, de la jeune Beth ou d'une mystérieuse renarde, toutes d'un roux flamboyant. Ce récit tissé de maladresses montre avec une grande pudeur tout l'amour qu'éprouvent l'un pour l'autre le père et le fils, malgré une grande difficulté de communication. C'est aussi un roman d'amitié, où, là encore, des hommes apprennent à reposer les uns sur les autres et à témoigner leur affection avec beaucoup de retenue. Midwinter rend par ailleurs hommage à la nature et aux éléments. La neige, la mer, les marais rythment et menacent le quotidien tandis que les animaux chers aux croyances païennes croisent régulièrement les narrateurs tout au long de ce rude hiver.

Beaucoup de profondeur et de recherche dans ce roman, dont j'ai d'autant plus savouré la lecture que j'ai eu la chance de rencontrer Fiona Melrose alors qu'il me restait la moitié du texte à lire. Un beau moment qui m'a permis de réaliser à quel point chaque détail était pensé par cette jeune auteur.

http://www.myloubook.com/archive/2018...

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With alternate chapters narrated by father and son, and moving between the snows of Suffolk in the present day and their memories of the heat of Zambia where Vale’s mother was murdered, Midwinter is a poignant but unsentimental novel about love and loss and all that can’t be said. Mirroring Pa Midwinter’s compassion for the pigs he rounds up to send to the slaughterhouse, Fiona Melrose handles her flawed and emotionally-clumsy characters with honesty empathy. She expertly captures the voices of the uneducated and inarticulate in language that excites from the first page. Thanks to Corsair for my review copy of this impressive debut.
Full review
Two novel encounters with foxes http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. This tore me apart in places. Stunning yet simple prose. I loved both MCs; Landyn and Vale. Landyn has such beautiful compassion for animals and all nature it was breathtaking. Both men 10 years later, dealing with the violent murder of wife and mother, full of the raw emotion that grief has caused. Maybe my favourite read of 2017 so far

[Mélanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Midwinter de Fiona Melrose vous prend par le col dès les premières pages. Dans une lande anglaise glaciale, la tension familiale et les non-dits crépitent comme une tempête sous la neige. La prose, concise et incisive, frappe juste, transformant chaque paysage et chaque silence en révélateur de blessures profondes.

[Kathe Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Midwinter by Fiona Melrose
Th narration follows the lives of Landyn and Vance Midwinter as the they face life together after the loss of Cecilia their wife and mother. Life had been hard in Suffix and Landyn’s decision to go to Zambia was not well accepted by Vance and his mother Cecilia. Life does not go well and after Cecilia dies they move back to Suffolk and try to begin life again but guilt and blame are still laying close to the surface as the demands brought on the harsh winters in Suffolk are not helping. The fragile family unit were constantly at odds and on the verge of total collapse when a foolish decision by Vance causes the law to become involved. The narrative goes back in forth in time as well as switching the scenes from Zambia and Suffolk. The writing is lyrical at times and yet gruff in nature. The timeline is elusive although it does refer to the Afghan war so sometime after 2001. Hypnotic in verse, global in sensitivity along with the solace that is found in nature with a little red fox. Excellent.
https://www.amazon.com/Midwinter-Fion...

[LaMesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the cover states, hauntingly beautiful... Melancholy, but beautiful. Very atmosperic too. I enjoyed it. I would most definitely be on the look out for this author.

[Alba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally posted on: http://www.albainbookland.com/2017/01...

Midwinter is like nothing I've read in a long while. It felt a bit like there was no beginning and no end to the story, more like the author chose a period of time in the life of the main characters and told their stories during that time. This is something I found really interesting at the beginning of the book: getting to know Vale, his father, and his best friend, trying to understand their actions and their feelings. But as the story progressed and you knew about their past, I kind of lost interest in them.

Midwinter has an undercurrent of sadness during the whole story that didn't help me warm up to the characters. I cared about them and wanted a better life for them but it was difficult to really connect with them. Probably because they didn't even know how to connect with each other themselves. The atmosphere between father and son was always weird, charged with guilt and resentment and I just wanted for them to sit with each other and talk.

One thing I found quite fascinating in this story though was its evocative power. The description of places, nature and its fauna, were generous and detailed. I could easily picture the plantations in Zambia and the farm in Suffolk. But as I said, I didn't really connected with the story itself. It's well crafted and interesting enough, and I really thing it conveys grief and guilt really well but I found it a bit boring at the end, so I have a bit of a mixed opinion on this one.

[ns510 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly attributed to my reading slump, the book was slow to start at first, but the vivid characters eventually captured my attention. Told in alternating viewpoints of a father and his son, in The aftermath of losing their wife and mother respectively, it's a raw and evocative portrayal of the grief process, in all it's harrowing shapes and forms. The last third especially, was stunning.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoying read and an emotional last few chapters that really got me invested, but damn this book is full of little grammatical and editing errors that would really throw me off. It’s really disappointing in an otherwise well written book.

[Karina Szczurek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning debut. A writer to watch.

[Claire Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad and slow and beautiful.

[Jane Craker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am I the only one who ended up reading Landyn's narrative in an American country drawl?

[Nadia Zeemeeuw · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars. Two men, a father and a son, carry too much guilt and angry with them. Two perspectives - one chapter for a son, one chapter for a father. This bitterly sad story tells us about useless of words when feeling are wounded - and does it deftly.

[Maggie Hyam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of intense emotions set predominately in the farming community of Suffolk. Wonderfully and atmospherically descriptive of landscapes and the effects of grief and resentments on relationships if allowed to fester without airing. A book I won't forget.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admittedly, I picked this novel because the cover is stunning. I don't know exactly what I expected, but oh wow. This was beautiful, beautiful. As a person who lost a parent at a young age, I deeply connected with Vale. Now as a parent, I can understand Landyn as well. Midwinter is a quick easy read, but emotionally layered and poignant. I love love love it, and I am not much of a re reader, but I will visit this again in a few years. I didn't want the book to end, as I wanted to see the Midwinter's progress. A sweet love story between father and son, but also between humans and nature and it's connection to us through life and death.