Quotes from book
Midwinter Break

Name: Midwinter Break
Author: Bernard MacLaverty

A Guardian / Sunday Times / Irish Times / Herald Scotland / Mail on Sunday Book of the Year Winner of the Bord Gáis Novel of the Year ‘Midwinter Break is a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms – to an honest reckoning – with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain...this is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers’ Colm Tóibín A retired couple, Gerry and Stella Gilmore, fly to Amsterdam for a midwinter break. A holiday to refresh the senses, to see the sights and to generally take stock of what remains of their lives. But amongst the wintry streets and icy canals we see their relationship fracturing beneath the surface. And when memories re-emerge of a troubled time in their native Ireland things begin to fall apart. As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are – and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.

“There's nobody can fix this but yourself. You are the only one who can make the changes.”

Bernard MacLaverty book Midwinter Break

Ch 11 - p.236
Novels, Midwinter Break (2017)

“When she emptied the kettle she always filled it for the benefit of the next person.”

Bernard MacLaverty book Midwinter Break

Ch 11 - p.227
Novels, Midwinter Break (2017)

“Gerry had once said to her in the middle of an argument that he didn't believe in souls but if, just perchance, they did exist, hers would be like a razor. She had been made that way by the Catholic Church, he said. Inflexible, narrow, capable of doing terrible damage by her adherence to rules and systems. But she totally objected. She told him that if she was a good person at all, it had come from her religion. If she had any sense of justice and fairness, any concept of equality, then it had come from the Church.”

Bernard MacLaverty book Midwinter Break

Ch 11 - p.217
Novels, Midwinter Break (2017)

“Believers. I mean, where have they all gone?”

Bernard MacLaverty book Midwinter Break

Ch 11 - p.215
Novels, Midwinter Break (2017)