A Long Winter cover art

A Long Winter

From the Sunday Times-bestselling author of Brooklyn

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Long Winter

By: Colm Tóibín
Narrated by: Colm Tóibín
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £6.46

Buy Now for £6.46

About this listen

An unforgettable story about loss and new love written and read by the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island

'The most striking example of Tóibín's emotional control . . . [An] eloquent expression of the bond between a mother and a son' – The Guardian

One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves. Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter.

Miquel’s desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house. As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother's absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life.

'A Long Winter evokes loss, loneliness, guilt and survival in a few masterly strokes' – Independent

 20th Century Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Winter

Critic reviews

A superbly powerful tale of betrayal and desertion. Quintessential Tóibín.
Tóibín is the consummate cartographer of the private self, summoning with restrained acuity . . . the thoughts his characters struggle to find words for (Clare Clark)
If you've ever told you mother to "go away" in a fit of anger, read this story and weep.
Tremendously powerful
A beautiful tale of filial grief, sexual hunger and hard-won acceptance of mutability and loss
All stars
Most relevant
A short story set during the depths of winter in the Spanish Pyrenees, where a father and son struggle against the twin elements of weather and grief. The story is beautifully read by the author, Colm Toibin, who also relates the circumstances that led to him writing it.

Beautifully atmospheric short story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.