Winter Song
‘Beautiful’ Claire Fuller
‘Magnificent’ Adam Johnson
‘Impressive’ Tracy Chevalier
‘A wondrous debut by a major talent’ Kevin Wilson
It is 1986, deep winter, in the hinterlands of Minnesota, a place so remote that the world beyond its borders barely registers. Two men face each other down across this frozen landscape: Byron Lugo, just released from prison for a hit-and-run he swears he didn’t commit, and Gordon Trent, the weary police chief who brought him in.
As Byron struggles to claw back his old life in a town convinced of his guilt, his determination forces Trent to assess his judgement, his choices, and ultimately his legacy.
WINTER SONG is a snow globe of a novel, a light in the dark: a reminder of our humanity, even in the harshest of places.
'A moving, atmospheric portrayal of small-town America. What an impressive debut!' Tracy Chevalier -
'A beautiful story about luck and friendship in small town America, and how no one is quite what they seem. I loved it' Claire Fuller -
'Winter Song is a gritty and unsparing portrait of a snow-blasted wonderland painted with exquisite tenderness and generosity. Morales mines the magical and transcendent from otherwise ordinary moments, filling the lives of her characters – and her readers – with the hard-won possibility of grace. A magnificent novel and an unforgettable debut' Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son -
‘Set in rural Minnesota, where a police chief and a released felon struggle with the implications of the past and the uncertainty of the future, this is a rare novel that is both unflinching and tender, a wondrous debut by a major talent’ Kevin Wilson -
‘This is a book I needed right now, because it doesn’t deny the ugliness of the world, but it reminded me of the good humans are capable of. Morales writes with a gritty earnestness that puts her in the good company of Elizabeth Strout and Kent Haruf’ Benjamin Percy -