A Place Called Winter

By: Patrick Gale

Narrated by: Patrick Gale

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the best-selling Notes From an Exhibition comes an irresistible, searching and poignant historical novel of love, relationships, secrets and escape to find yourself, sometimes you must lose everything .

A privileged elder son, and stammeringly shy, Harry Cane has followed convention at every step. Even the beginnings of an illicit, dangerous affair do little to shake the foundations of his muted existence - until the shock of discovery and the threat of arrest cost him everything.

Forced to abandon his wife and child, Harry signs up for emigration to the newly colonised Canadian prairies. Remote and unforgiving, his allotted homestead in a place called Winter is a world away from the golden suburbs of turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. And yet it is here, isolated in a seemingly harsh landscape, under the threat of war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism that the fight for survival will reveal in Harry an inner strength and capacity for love beyond anything he has ever known before.

In this exquisite journey of self-discovery, loosely based on a real life family mystery, Patrick Gale has created an epic, intimate human drama, both brutal and breathtaking. It is a novel of secrets, sexuality and, ultimately, of great love.

©2015 Patrick Gale (P)2015 Headline Digital

Outstanding.

Patrick Gale has long been my favourite author. His work is always excellent, but this book is really outstanding. The way he drew upon his family history to write it is fascinating, and I would love to have access to a list of the facts to see what he had to work with.

The story of a gay man in Edwardian society, and the raw emotionality of his relationships was harrowing at times, and sad at others, with a bit of murder mystery thrown in.

The only criticism that I would make is that I was often confused about the period. Sometimes I thought it was Victorian, then Edwardian, and then during WWI. It was all of those, I suppose, but moving between past and present was a tad confusing for me. It wasn't until towards the end that I had a firm grip on what period we had been in at various times. Gale has a lovely voice, but his narration was a bit lacking in that he doesn't really do accents or different voices for different characters very well, which would have helped. Still it is nice to hear him.

Definitely worth a download, and will probably be the first audio book that I ever listen to a second (and maybe third) time.

excellent

Part of the great satisfaction of reading this wonderful book is having Patrick Gale reading it. No one could have done it better.

A story too poignant not to be based on truth

I am a huge fan of Patrick gale and have loved all his books. His was perhaps not the best narrator although I did get used to him after a few chapters. The character of Harry Gale will stay with me. I feel sure that this story must be based on truth however fragile. Read it and love it as I did. Petra, Paul and Harry will surely get under your skin.

Crying at beauty

Indelible portrait of love and loss. Heart wrenching, but hopeful too. Stunning book. A must listen.