A beautiful reflection on love, life and religion through the prism of a long marriage

This is a modern classic. A book that anyone who loves fiction will love and carry within their heart.

The novel is both claustrophobic and expansive it charts a couple who could be anyone i recognised parts of my relationship and also my parents and my inlaws relationship.

The writer asks big questions about big issues but in such a way that it feels inclusive and honest . Their is humour and i laughed out loud frequently i also wanted at times to cry .

A huge novel that seems timeless yet totally current

I have a Bernard Maclaverty book in my bookcase that I have never read. I will now, after reading Midwinter Break, What a wonderful book.

Stella and Gerry are an older couple, travelling to Amsterdam for a city break. Both born in Northern Ireland, they now live in Scotland. The story examines their relationship - comfortable and knowing on the one hand, near to breaking point on the other. Gerry drinks, Stella loses herself in the rituals of her Catholic faith and neither shares or understands the other's addictions. As the holiday progresses the gulf between them becomes apparent whilst still retaining the same long marriage affinity, memories, shared life experiences and easy coded banter.

A,though not quite there in age, so much was recognisable and Maclaverty writes with warmth, compassion and a lot of humour. I loved the Irish wit which came through in the easy conversation and could recognise and identify with so many of the references. There is a wonderful section when Gerry affectionately lists all the things that Stella is and knows and you really do consider just how many millions of things makes someone human.

The book builds stealthily to a breaking point - no spoilers, but for me all was gradually revealed and that was very satisfying. Excellent.

I just loved this beautifully written and psychologically perceptive portrait of a long marriage. Gerry and Stella have been together for 40 years and seem at first to be content and comfortable with each other. But on a short break to Amsterdam it soon becomes clear that there are problems between them and that their background in Northern Ireland and the Troubles still casts a long shadow. Acute observation, a real ear for dialogue and the interaction between a couple who have been together a long time, a poignant examination of longing and regret, all makes this a nigh on perfect book – and one which even manages to be really funny at times in spite of its sombre tone.

A beautifully written and well crafted book about a relationship but although not a dramatic read there was no lack of drama. The characters well drawn as you come to expect of Bernard MacLaverty and nothing to disappoint at all.
Probably not what I would chose to take as a holiday read but worthy of a quiet time to read and absorb.

Midwinter Break is one of those books that linger in your mind, keeping the cogs and wheels turning, until you understand why it is that it resonates so deeply. If Keats was right and ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’, then Midwinter Break is the novel equivalent of Keats’ phrase.
As ever with MacLaverty, the prose is both beautiful and affecting. He has such a delicate touch; a nuanced, rich and understated dialogue from which you draw meaning without even knowing it.
Stella and Gerry have been married for over 40 years. Stella is a practising Catholic; she used to be an English teacher and now does cryptic crosswords to keep her mind active. Gerry is an architect who once dreamed of making beautiful buildings but now takes solace in his liking for drink.
Both met in their native Belfast but have long since moved to Glasgow when the battles of Northern Ireland took too much toll on their lives. When we meet them, they are quietly bickering as they prepare to go on a midwinter break to Amsterdam. But who, with any sense, leaves a bleak Glasgow in January to go to a bleaker Amsterdam where the winds coming straight off the sea are even more biting in that month?
It transpires that Stella has an agenda she has not yet shared with Gerry, but this weekend will be the one that shapes the future of their relationship.
In Midwinter Break, every word is thought through, every phrase is precisely placed and nothing is redundant.
MacLaverty offers a portrait of a marriage that relies on two people knowing and understanding each other, sometimes too well, as they share a lifetime of understood shared jokes and allusions.
As they share their hotel room and together journey round Amsterdam, there is much to enjoy in this couples relationship, their mutual enjoyment and their still healthy sex life. Yet over this there is a dark cloud that hovers. Of course, intimations of mortality are present in the small but growing signs of ageing that each displays. Stella’s knees are stiff; Gerry is ever more forgetful. We learn that Stella has scars and as we understand how they were caused we are transported back to Stella and Gerry’s youth in the midst of the sectarian divide and we begin to understand what has really driven Stella to investigate the option she is exploring in Amsterdam.
Throughout MacLaverty’s exploration of this marriage we see that there is love, understanding and companionship. And yet there is disappointment, disaffection and dark clouds loom.
When Stella decides, after a disappointing interview in a women’s Catholic order, that she is ready to really talk to Gerry about what she wants for her life, the small cracks in their marriage could well grow into gaps of earthquake proportions.
But this is not a drama. As I said at the beginning, it is an understated, honest and very truthful portrait. As Leonard Cohen says so eloquently in Anthem; “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Above all, Midwinter Break is a book about how optimism can still beat in our hearts in the face of serious adversity. As such, it is hauntingly, achingly, beautiful.

I urge you to read it. I will be buying it as well as giving it to everyone I know. It is, quite simply, outstanding.

This is an enjoyable easy read. Gerry and Stella go on holiday to Amsterdam. There are problems in their marriage and Gerry's drinking causes arguments. There is a lot of detail about their past. They have been through a lot but can their marriage survive and can they become closer than they currently are. This is a story about love and life.

I was really pleased when I realised that Bernard MacLaverty had written another book. I read Grace Notes many years ago and was haunted by the story for a long time.
This book works in a similar way. It opens as Gerry and Stella are getting ready for a winter break in Amsterdam. As their trip progresses it becomes obvious they are also in the wintery season of their marriage. Over the long weekend their differences become more apparent.
MacLavery seems to open a window allowing us to look in to their relationship and gradually exposes the terrible event in their past which is still affecting their lives today.
The language and descriptions made it easy to imagine being in their world the comfort and also the intense irritations of being in a relationship for that many years.
This book lived up to my expectations.

This is a story of a middle-aged couple travelling to Amsterdam for a short winter holiday. The wife has a hidden agenda (nothing exciting) and the husband is a mellow drunk.

It consists of each one of them taking turns with their long winded thoughts as chapters. They don’t speak to each other a lot which is incredibly depressing and boring.

None of them is likeable or an interesting character.

Fatima

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Stella and Gerry have been married for many years. On the surface, they share enough companionship and memories of love to see them through. But drill down and all is not what it seems. Stella is at a crossroads. She assesses her life’s achievements in terms of dinners cooked, dishes washed and floors vacuumed, but she has a plan. She is shocked by the extent of the disappointment she experiences when the plan is thwarted, and is forced to re-consider her future.
On a break in Amsterdam, Stella rises early and finds her way about the city on her own. Left in the hotel room to his own devices, Gerry reminisces about the past. A picture emerges of a kind and practical man, qualities now blurred by excessive drinking. Later, Stella links her arm in his, as they tour the city museums and sights. Tired out, Stella returns to sleep, and Gerry drinks quietly.
The novel climbs slowly to a conclusion as their flight home is delayed by snow, a long wait a Schiphol airport forces them to face the truth about themselves and their future.
This is a compelling study of a relationship, and how it changes as the years go by. Bernard MacLaverty’s prose is much as you would imagine the Rembrandts in the Rijksmuseum he visits: - strong, with dark, smoky backgrounds and patches of bright shiny detail. This is a long awaited and worthwhile pleasure.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK

The master returns with a book of shadows and cobwebs in the corners. Let's hope we won't have to wait as long for MacLaverty's next work.

How emotionally draining this book turned out to be. It touched me on levels I hadn’t even considered before, perhaps because I am fast approaching the age of Gerry and Stella, and have also been married ‘for a protracted period’.

It’s a fact, people change over time. They develop new interests or existing ones come more to the fore and might not be shared with a long-term partner. Personality foibles that seem charming and perfectly tolerable in youth can become irritating, or it may be that partners become less accommodating of each other.

Gerry and Stella separately have come to wonder what they have done with their lives. Gerry’s years as an architect have not left a noticeable mark on the landscape - disappointed, he has withdrawn into short temper, insensitivity and disdain for others, and too much drink. In Stella’s case, a resurgence of the religious faith of her childhood, shrugged off in early adulthood, is causing her to question whether it’s not too late to live a better life, make some kind of difference to the world around her. Their interests seem to be diverging so widely that they need to consider whether they can continue together.

We witness their weekend in Amsterdam in heartbreaking detail - their very different agendas, the little (and not so little) deceptions, their relief when a confrontation is avoided and a few hours alone achieved - yet their underlying love for each other glimmers on. The author’s insight is absolute. The incident with the earring in the Anne Frank house will stay with me forever. The writing is out of this world - I can’t believe I haven’t come across his work before but I’ll be seeking out his previous novels as a matter of urgency.

Thanks so much to Random House Vintage via NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Bernard MacLaverty is a sublime writer and Midwinter Break is as good as anything he has ever written.

Gerry and Stella Gilmore are a long-married couple of pensionable age, living in Glasgow but originally from the north of Ireland. Gerry is fond of a nightcap and Stella has quite a strong Catholic faith. They know one another inside out. They have decided to take a mid-winter break to Amsterdam, perhaps to celebrate their enduring marriage.

Gradually, and gently, we start to see the flaws in the characters emerge. This is done with such grace; the reader knows, likes and empathises with both Gerry and Stella; the flaws that emerge are real, but we see the real people beneath and they are likeable. As they wander the streets of Amsterdam - both together and separately - they start to discover more about themselves and each other. Partly, they explore the present day, partly their lives in Glasgow, and partly their lives in Ireland.

This is a novel about ageing. I recognise myself in Gerry. In fact, the similarity between Gerry's life and my own is uncanny - right down to the night-time leg cramps. There are themes of unfulfilled ambition, fatigue, closure. There is guilt, including the nagging guilt about minor slights and mistakes from years ago. But also there is lots and lots of love. Not bodice ripping young love, but old, mature love that is too often taken for granted.

There is change, often not for the better. The change of a nature of a community, the change brought by significant events, and the change brought simply by time, with two people slowly ceasing to be who they once were. The questions that arise are whether to resist or accept those changes. It is an illustration of the Serenity Prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Midwinter Break is deeply moving. It speaks of truths that many of us will face some day soon.