A November morning in the 1920s finds an elderly man in his 80s walking the grounds of his Dorchester home, pondering his past and future with deep despondence. That man is the revered novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, and Christopher Nicholson’s fictionalized account of the final years of the accomplished writer’s life is as engrossing as it is heartbreaking. The novel focuses on the true events that occurred around the London theater dramatization of Hardy’s acclaimed novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, including Hardy’s hand-picked casting of the young, alluring Gertrude “Gertie” Bugler of The Hardy Players to play Tess. As plans for the play become more concrete, Hardy’s interest in Gertie becomes a voyeuristic infatuation, causing him to write some of the best poems of his career. When Hardy’s reclusive wife, Florence, catches wind of Hardy’s desire for Gertie to take the London stage, however, a tangled web of jealousy and missed opportunity ensnares all three characters—with devastating results. Told from the perspectives of Hardy, Gertie, and Florence, Nicholson’s novel perfectly captures the often-difficult juxtaposition of fledgling hopes and the unfulfilled life. With expert insight into the struggles of both Hardy and Florence, coupled with poetic yet unassuming prose, Winter is certainly on par with the novels of its central character.

Christopher Nicholson
Christopher Nicholson is a writer, living in England. Winter is his third novel. His two earlier novels are The Fattest Man In America (2005) and The Elephant Keeper (2009). The Elephant Keeper was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Encore Award. He has two children, a son and a daughter. For the past twenty-five years he has lived in the countryside on the border between Wiltshire and Dorset.

• Jan 3 2016
  Christopher Nicholson opens the novel with sublime passages about nature in the winter, very much in the tradition of Hardy’s own writing."—Mary Whipple
  — Seeing the World Through Books
• Jan 2 2016
  "WINTER is quietly intelligent and compassionate..."—Patricia Hagen
  — Minneapolis Star Tribune
• Dec 30 2015
  An "elegiac, beautifully restrained novel, a meditation on aging, marriage and loss"—Carmela Ciuraru
  — The New York Times
• Oct 19 2015
  "most remarkable for its deliciously archaic prose and portrait of the artist as an old man falling in love partly with a girl"
  — Publishers Weekly (starred review)