Helen Dunmore's most celebrated work -- never before published in the United States -- is a compelling turn-of-the-century tale of innocence corrupted by secrecy and the grace of second chances. Bearing the distinctive lyrical beauty of her predecessors, A Spell of Winter asserts Dunmore's claim to the territories staked out by some of the great nineteenth-century novelists. But with a strong, sensuous magic and a modern understanding of love that is all her own, Dunmore defies all the old formulas. Catherine and her brother, Rob, do not know why they have been abandoned by their parents. In the house of their grandfather, "the man from nowhere," they forge a passionate refuge for themselves against the terror of family secrets, and while the world outside moves to the brink of war, their sibling love becomes fraught with dangers.
