A Week in Winter
By Maeve Binchy
This is a week in winter that is years in the making. A group of strangers converge on the opening
of a charming, rebuilt, historic Bed and Breakfast on the west coast of Ireland
for a week’s vacation. Each guest
carries their own baggage in hand and in heart.
They blend together, coming from all over and from all ages, for a
moment in time. They share a joyful
opportunity to pause, and to reflect on their life trajectories, each pondering
whether they are on the path they really desire. Change is in the air.
The author artfully weaves the individual stories for each
of the characters, and then tells how those stories intersect during this magical
week. The book begins with the tale of
Chicky Starr, and what takes her away from Ireland to New York. Then you’ll learn what drives Chicky to
restore an old, decaying mansion back in her home town in Ireland. The ripples of Chicky’s decision lead to the
restoration of other peoples’ lives, especially friends and staff at her B and
B. That is when we are treated to the
stories of each of the other characters.
This wintry tale about people taking the time to care, and to seek joy,
is blanketed by the vivid personality of rugged Ireland with its customs,
traditions, and music.
Maeve Binchy was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story
writer, columnist, and speaker. A Week in Winter was her final novel,
published posthumously in 2012. Her love
for small town Ireland came naturally from her own life experience. Her childhood home was 10 miles from Dublin,
where she grew up with sisters and brothers and parents who loved their
children. She described her parents as
people who “thought all their geese were swans. It was a gift greater than
beauty or riches, the feeling that you were as fine as anyone else.” After extensive travelling, she married a
writer and moved into a house in a little town in Ireland called Dalkey, just a
few hundred yards from her childhood home.
She wrote many heartwarming books and short stories, and said about her
life’s work, “I'd like people to think I was a good friend and a reasonable
story-teller and to know that thanks to all the great people, family and
friends that I met, I was very, very happy when I was here.”
Thereby hangs a
tale. . . .
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