Contemporary
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Late August, 2019. As talk of a prorogation of parliament overwhelms the news cycle, a cast of London guests are holidaying in an Edwardian family house at the seaside in Dover. Little do they know just how this parliamentary strife will affect their own lives over the coming days...
Left-wing liberal Cecily Hayes feels passionately that Brexit is laying siege to the England she loves. With this in mind, she embarks upon a literary quest, from John Foxe, through Milton, Defoe, Wollstonecraft and Blake, to discover what exactly it is, this 'England' of her heart. Quite contrary to this, Cecily’s friend Diana hopes, conversely, that Brexit can save her England from cultural extinction.
In the mix are also Cecily’s German-Togolese husband, Florian, who is consumed by the fallacies of neoliberalism in the Americas, and her bumptious public-school educated nephew, who hero-worships Jacob Rees-Mogg. Last-but-not-least there is Cecily’s jolly financial-adviser brother-in-law and her wealthy sister, Victoria, whose secret plans for the family house could – if Cecily only knew – turn her whole world upside-down.
Within that house, as the holiday progresses and struggles at home mirror the struggles in government, unravels a story of Brexit England: a world of confusion and delusion, fury and betrayal.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
On one level this is a well-observed story about the social and emotional tensions that unfold during a week-long family holiday, with three women and their families. However, the carefully drawn intimate tensions and longings between these women - with their roots far back in childhood experience - are also used to mirror broader political tensions which colour the women's relationships. On another level this novel explores the contemporary frictions surrounding Brexit, class, national identity, wealth and power inequalities. Winter does a wonderful job of letting us inside each woman's mind in turn, and showing how each experiences differently the conversations and incidents that take place during the week, and has a very different perspective on wider political events. As the novel progresses we gradually come to understand better *why* each of them has come to see things as they do, and to feel empathy for their differing perspectives that transcends political rifts. Without resolving any of these painful political currents (which are also traced back through the centuries, through reference to historical writings), the novel invites us to step back and take a wider view on society, to understand where other people are coming from, and to question our own inherited assumptions. There is so much food for thought here - it would be a great book for a book club discussion!
This book explores the complexity of different responses to the 2016 referendum and, in the process, the complicated and fluctuating relationships between family members and between friends. Intellectually Winter offers an original and stimulating historical exploration of deeply rooted religious and social attitudes in England. At the same time she also explores, with great sensitivity, the hurts, resentments, assumptions and prejudices which accrue in families over the years. The characters, drawn with a light touch and telling detail and the descriptions of 'the Brexit house' itself, its garden, and its dramatic Dover location combine to provide haunting images and convincing reality. A subtle and memorable book.
