By Lena McMillan, Family Support Development Officer – Forth Valley
‘Winter Ghosts’ by Kate Mosse
January’s book choice for our group was ‘Winter Ghosts’ by Kate Mosse. Set in France, 1928, this is the story of Freddie, a man struggling with the loss of his brother. While driving through the mountains in snowy conditions, he loses control of his car, which spins off the road. Freddie walks off in search of help, finding himself in the remote village of Nulle. There he meets the captivating Fabrissa, but all is not quite what it seems, as the story flits between Freddie’s present day 1928 and a centuries-old past.
“We are who we are because of those we love and who we allow to love us.”
This is a book that covers themes of grief, memory, and war, in an almost fairytale form of storytelling.
Our group rated it at 7.4 out of 10.
Quite a few of our readers found it a slow-paced read in the beginning, almost a chore, and we later discussed if this was a conscious choice from the other, to suggest an early stage of Freddie’s grief. Conversely, another reader found it a quick read and most of the group agreed that it was, at least on the surface, an easy read.
We discussed the which characters we liked and disliked and covered the topics of grief and war and touched briefly on closure and moving on.
Readers in the group commented positively on the writer’s style of writing, liking its descriptive nature which made it ‘very atmospheric.’
Some comments from our group:
“…very poetically written, her descriptions were lovely.”
“…simple story, bit unbelievable at times but covered quite serious topics.”
“…shows the importance of family, which was missing in this…”
How to join the book group:
The Scottish Families Book Group is for anyone who is currently being supported by one of our services in Scotland.
For more information or to join us, please contact Lena from our team groups@sfad.org.uk.