Bernard MacLaverty , Midwinter Break heartbreaking yet funny.




I was able to review this through Netgalley.

This is not long listed for the booker prize and whilst i have only read one booker long listed title this year so far ; Reservoir 13 which is wonderful ; truly fantastic , i find it hard to believe this novel couldn't make the long list.

MacLaverty takes a couple, forces them to escape the freedoms that being at home allows from each other and forces them to be together and allows the things that are never said to each other to come to the surface. His characters are frauds in that she is hiding multiple emotional truths and he avoids truths about himself that are self evident.

The book made me laugh frequently , descriptions of meals and conversations have a humour that is recognisable without the Peter Kay and his do you remember shtick. Maclaverty's couple are every one , i recognised parts of me, parts of my parents and parts of my in-laws and that makes the sadness that flows through the book more pointed.

I cannot recommend this too much it is literary fiction without the sense that its literature for literature's sake.

Read or regret .

Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape (3 Aug. 2017)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1911214217
  • ISBN-13: 978-1911214212


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