Either Side of Winter
By (Author) Benjamin Markovits
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
1st November 2006
Main
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
813.6
Paperback
240
Width 150mm, Height 198mm, Spine 15mm
192g
In Fall we see the tentative beginnings of an unlikely romance between schoolteacher Amy and drifting former graduate, Charles. In Winter we hear how her colleague Howard learns, seventeen years too late, that he has a daughter following a brief fling with collegemate Annie. Spring and Summer tell the story of his daughter's friend Rachel's relationships with her literature teacher, Stuart, and her dying father Reuben. Executed with exquisite sympathy, tenderness and emotional nuance, Either Side of Winter is a moving and elegiac picture of people whose lives are inextricably linked by circumstance, community - and a need to be loved.
"'There is a deeply flowing harmony between his characters' emotional states and their surroundings... Markovits' most remarkable achievement is to give them rich, darkly shaded inner lives.' Jonathan Beckman, Observer 'It is difficult to overstress the depth and intelligence, the achievement of this book... It is very human, astonishing, superb; and, what is more important, sublime.' Todd McEwen, Guardian"
Benjamin Markovits is in his early thirties. The Syme Papers was his first novel. Originally from Texas, he now lives in London and writes for the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.