December [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2008

A spellbinding novel about a troubled young girl and a family in crisis, and a gripping, astonishing portrait of recovery and self-determination.

When December opens, eleven year old Isabelle hasn’t spoken a word in nearly a year. Four psychiatrists have abandoned her, declaring her silence to be impenetrable. Her parents are at once mystified and terrified by their daughter’s withdrawal, and by their own gradually loosening hold on the world as they’ve always known it. Isabelle’s private school, which has until now taken the extraordinary step of allowing her to complete her assignments from home, is on the verge of expelling her, forcing her parents to confront the possibility that what once seemed a quirk of adolescence, a phase, is perhaps a lifelong transformation, a swift and total retreat from which their daughter may never emerge. December paints an unforgettable picture of a family reckoning with a bewildering crisis, and of a critical month in the life of a bright, fascinating girl, locked into an isolation of her own making and from which only she can decide to break free.

Compulsively readable and deeply affecting, December is a work of marvelous originality and emotional power from a prodigiously gifted young writer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like her 2006 debut, Fireworks, Winthrop's second novel focuses on the turmoil wrought by the loss of a child. Although Wilson and Ruth Carter's 11-year-old daughter, Isabelle, is very much alive, she hasn't spoken in nine months, an elective muteness brought on by no known trauma. Her silence confounds her parents, a series of psychiatrists and her Manhattan private school, which, by December, is losing patience with her. Ruth, a successful lawyer, pores over Isabelle's past actions and sketchbooks for hidden meanings; Wilson, a well-meaning but often bumbling father who still views his preteen daughter as a little girl, is convinced that action, not analysis, will cure Isabelle. Isabelle herself, whom Winthrop introduces skillfully through a shifting third-person omniscient narrative, is most intriguing: keenly self-aware but unable to help herself, alternating between resentment and adoration for her parents, Isabelle is in many ways simply a preadolescent to the nth degree. Like budding artist Isabelle, Winthrop is a master of observation, and her ability to crystallize themes in particular vignettes (fixing a broken phonograph, buying Christmas presents) brings this affecting family drama vividly to life. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Isabelle, 11, has not spoken in 280 days and her doting parents are frantic with worry. The girl enjoys a comfortable life in a Manhattan apartment and a country-weekend cottage and is enrolled in private school. Her silence is not the result of trauma and has no physical cause. Several psychologists have given up on "fixing" her, and her school threatens to cut her loose if she does not return to normalcy. Ruth, a somewhat controlling mother, hangs on to the hope that a new psychologist will unravel the mystery through Isabelle's drawings. Wilson holds on to the hope that action will cure his daughter's silence—hang the swing, clean the garage, cut the Christmas tree, travel to Africa. The plot is at first revealed through the parents' point of view and could almost be considered a mystery, complete with red herrings. (Will the deaf neighbor boy trigger Isabelle to speak? Has she inherited crazy Uncle Jimmy's tendency to mental problems?) Only when the story switches to the protagonist's point of view do readers begin to understand what is going on. December is a hauntingly quiet domestic drama, full of evocative language and agonizing emotional scenes. The looming demise of an old apple tree and of a cancer-stricken dog hint at the loss of a childhood. Isabelle's quiet, stubborn rebellion should appeal to teens.—Paula Dacker, Charter Oak High School, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (June 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307268306
• ISBN-13: 978-0307268303
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,517,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, July 4, 2008

By 

Marjorie (Westchester County, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: December (Hardcover)

What happens to a family when their only child decides to stop talking? As the fifth psychiatrist to which her parents bring 11-year old Isabelle says, there is nothing clinically wrong. Yet, he explains, her silence "is not because she does not want to speak." This second, and beautifully written, novel by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop sensitively examines how all of the family members struggle to cope with the silence that Isabelle has imposed upon herself as she, and they, struggle to bring her out of it. I found myself pulled into the family, rooting for each of the imperfect people in it to find a way to work through the situation.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And My words Like Silent Raindrops Fell and Echoed in the Sounds of Silence, July 25, 2008

By 

Carol A. Sym (Maspeth, New york United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: December (Hardcover)

This very realistic novel, December, by Winthrop is a mirror into the lives of a family facing a crisis of silence. The characters are very human and very true to life. The father tries to cope by losing himself to tasks,by keeping busy. The mother looks for ways to break through the walls of silence with psychiatrists and art. The child , so sensitive and intelligent, is coping with her stresses in a tomb of silence.
The book portrays the achingly real conflict of a child, who appears to be spoiled and willful, but who is actually a gentle soul caught up in a nature so fragile and sensitive that it requires the isolation of silence to cope. Any family going through parenting problems of any kind will relate to the love, sadness and frustration that December so realistically portrays.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, August 8, 2008

By 

brnstdy (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: December (Kindle Edition)

A new Kindle and a long, summer vacation allowed me to read quite a few books. December was one of the best! Ms. Winthrop is a masterful storyteller! With insight and expertise, she takes readers inside the heads of each of the three main characters, a mother, a father, and a young daughter, who has stopped talking. We get to know them intimately through their thoughts or words. Personally, by the end of the book the characters were like friends, and I cared deeply about how the story resolved!