A Meal in Winter - Softcover

Hubert Mingarelli

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846275369 ISBN 13: 9781846275364

Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd, 2014

Synopsis

Shortlisted for the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

One morning, in the dead of winter, three German soldiers head out into the frozen Polish countryside. They have been charged by their commanders to track down and bring back for execution 'one of them' - a Jew. Having flushed out a young man hiding in the woods, they decide to rest in an abandoned house before continuing their journey back to the camp. As they prepare food, they are joined by a passing Pole whose virulent anti-Semitism adds tension to an already charged atmosphere. Before long, the group's sympathies begin to splinter as each man is forced to confront his own conscience as the moral implications of their murderous mission become clear.

About this title

About the Author

Hubert Mingarelli’s books include Quatre soldats (Four Soldiers), which won the Prix de Médicis. He lives in Grenoble. Sam Taylor is a translator, novelist, and journalist. His translated works include Laurent Binet’s award-winning HHhH. His own novels have been translated into ten languages.

Review

Praise for A Meal in Winter:
"The book’s deceptive directness and simplicity, and its muted undercurrents of horror, will make many think of the stories of Ernest Hemingway. This is painful, unconsoling reading, but also a reminder of the power a short, perfect work of fiction can wield.”
Wall Street Journal

Stark and profound.”
New York Times

Fine reading, not just for those interested in the war.”
Library Journal

"The command of tone and voice sustains tension until the very last page of a novel that will long resonate in the reader’s conscience."
Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Masterful. . . . Mingarelli offers a new twist on the Holocaust novel. His spare prose, crisply translated by Sam Taylor, adds to the narrative’s intensity and keeps you turning the pages until its poignant conclusion."
The Huffington Post

"It is 138 profound pages of horror and humanity."
Book of the Year, the Irish Times

"Short, powerful, vivid, and utterly compelling."
The Jewish Chronicle

"Brilliant, devastating, [and] compelling."
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs

Haunting . With devastating concision, Mingarelli and his translator, Sam Taylor, carry the moral dilemma to an understated yet stunning conclusion.”
Publishers Weekly (starred)

"The banality of evil’ finds beautiful, spare expression in this remarkable novella."
Ian McEwan

"A luminous tale The most moving book I have read for a long time."
The Independent on Sunday

"A masterpiece."
The Independent

"This strong and simple story packs a mighty punch."
The Times (London)

"Beautiful and disturbing, complex and surprising This is not easy for the reader to handle, but Mingarelli knows what he is doing."
The Herald (Glasgow)

Edition details

• Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846275369
• ISBN 13: 9781846275364
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144