A Week in Winter Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00B40NUV6 | Format: PDF
A Week in Winter Description
Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House's big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms. John, the American movie star, thinks he has arrived incognito; Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a holiday together; Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by seeing too much death practicing medicine; Anders hates his father's business, but has a real talent for music; Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher, criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone's relief; the Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where first prize was Paris; and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic visions.
Sharing a week with this unlikely cast of characters is pure joy, full of Maeve's trademark warmth and humor. Once again, she embraces us with her grand storytelling.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 10 hours and 57 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: February 12, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00B40NUV6
I always fall into a book by Maeve Binchy like falling into a warm bed on
a snowy evening, enveloped in a gloriously cozy down duvet, the lamp on, a
warm drink to hand, ready to be swept away to a place of caring and compassion.
Her theme is always the same - people, confronted by difficulties in life, bad
luck or hard times, and how the choices they make lead to a better life, or one
that is (by their own actions) shut down and made smaller.
Ireland is not only the setting, it is also one of these characters - beautiful and
troubled, or glorious and hopeful; more likely all of these.
Maeve has died, and now that I have read this book, there is that sad realization
that there aren't going to be any new characters to meet - but I will be re-reading
all her books, including this one, which I think is one of the best.
If you are a fan of Maeve Binchy's works, you already know these characters, and
the plots. You know the place - only a small part of the book is set in Dublin; most
of it is in the West, in a village on the coast.
As usual, there are a mis-matched group of near-strangers, brought together for an arbitrary
occassion - this time it is the opening of a small inn - each with a life problem
that must be confronted (or, notably for one character, avoided) and how that
plays out.
The pleasure is in spending time with these people as they face up to their problems,
or fail to, and the understanding (and compassion) for people that Maeve always
shows.
I first read the late Ms. Binchy's works when I was a teenager several decades ago. Circle of Friends was the first Binchy book I read and its story of friendships, loyalty, heartbreak, and love was so well-told that I devoured as many of Ms. Binchy's works as I could. Since then, I have read each and every one of Ms. Binchy's works and have all of the titles in my home library. Her works are what I would describe as cozy reads yet they deal with family and relationship problems in a very down-to-earth manner, making the characters seem altogether real and each of the stories never failed to resonate with me, though admittedly some are better than others.
In Ms. Binchy's last novel (she died sometime last year), the setting is a coastal Irish village called Stoneybridge. Chicky is an Irish woman who followed her heart years ago and left for the States with a young American man named Walter who turned out to be too restless to be tied down and eventually leaves for greener pastures. Luckily Chicky's independent spirit refuses to be cowed by this and she finds a steady job and trains as a pastry chef while building on other skills. Back in Ireland, Chicky's family thinks she is doing well, unaware of what really happened and so when Chicky eventually returns to Stoneybridge, her family welcomes her as a prosperous 'widow'.
Chicky decides to buy the old manor house owned by Ms. Queenie Sheedy and converts it into a hotel which caters to people looking for some respite from their busy lives, people who just want to get away from it all. Like many of Ms. Binchy's books, the chapters in the book focus on one character at a time, both the guests as well as the people running the hotel, and explore each character's story. Fans of Ms.
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