Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter is a quiet, emotive read about friendships built out of unlikely circumstances – a freak snowstorm, a car accident and a dead body.
Here’s the blurb:
Amid the biggest Brooklyn snowstorm in living memory, an unexpected friendship blossoms between three people thrown together by circumstance. Richard Bowmaster, a lonely university professor in his sixties, hits the car driven by Evelyn Ortega, a young, undocumented migrant from Guatemala. But what at first seems an inconvenience takes an unforeseen and darker turn when Evelyn comes to him and his neighbour Lucia Maraz, desperately seeking help. Sweeping from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala to turbulent 1970s Chile and Brazil, and woven with Isabel Allende’s trademark humanity, passion and storytelling verve, In the Midst of Winter is a mesmerizing and unforgettable tale.
The dead body in the car suggests a thriller, but while there is mystery, the focus is squarely on the characters as they connect with each other while confronting painful memories of past loss and heartbreak that led to the present moment.
There’s a lot to love about this book – it combines passion and compassion with Allende’s gift for story – and I found it hard to put down.
Monique Mulligan
For more of Monique Mulligan’s writing on books, check out Write Note Reviews
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television