The Land in Winter

By: Andrew Miller

Narrated by: Andrew Miller

December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them.

On the farm nearby lives Irene’s mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer’s wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget.

When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has been abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way—ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory—so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.

An exquisite, binge-worthy examination of relationships, The Land in Winter is a masterclass in storytelling—proof yet again that Andrew Miller is one of the most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart.

©2024 Andrew Miller (P)2024 Hodder and Stoughton, Limited

lack of cohesiveness

I enjoyed the parts but not the whole. I wanted to learn more about Bill but some of the other characters were juat boring. Still, I can tell this is a very so I will try a few of his other books.

A compelling story beautifully read

This story of two marriages is a character study in what you ever really know about the person you marry. Author has rendered the landscape and details of their lives with a particular eye for detail. A hauntingly memorable book.

Relationships gone awry

Heartfelt with characters that you felt you knew so well, their personalities were so real and flawed that you felt you personally knew them.

Terrific Writing but lacked a little somehow

The writing is spectacular. The author puts words together like a true artist. I really was invested to be obsessed with this book but it left me with a feeling that something was lacking. I guess I didn’t really care about the individual characters enough. Or I wanted more from their stories than I kind of expected. But I guess that was kind of the point and it was purposely and artistically written that way. Read it for yourself definitely.

Beautiful story

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. Two thumbs up. Good description of the way it was in the 60s ambiguous ending leaves reader to surmise what will happen to Eric, Irene and Will