A Place Called Winter

Picked for the BBC Radio 2 Simon Mayo Book Club

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.

Yet, despite its punishing demands, it is here that Harry will find a will to truly live. Isolated in a seemingly harsh landscape, under the threat of war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism, the fight for survival will reveal in Harry an inner strength and capacity for love beyond anything he has ever known before.

Described by The Observer as ‘a dramatic and affecting portrayal of dislocation, extreme environments and the traumatic effects of enforces secrecy,’ A Place Called Winter is an epic, intimate human drama, both brutal and breath-taking. In this exquisite journey of self-discovery, loosely based on a real life family mystery, Patrick Gale crafts an exploration of secrets, sexuality and, ultimately, of great and transformative love.