Winter Ghosts [Paperback]

Kate Mosse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2010

By the author of the New York Times-bestselling Labyrinth, a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage.

In the winter of 1928, still seeking some kind of resolution to the horrors of World War I, Freddie is traveling through the beautiful but forbidding French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Dazed, he stumbles through the woods, emerging in a tiny village, where he finds an inn to wait out the blizzard. There he meets Fabrissa, a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation.

Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered his own role in the life of this remote town.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Mosse's wisp of a new novel (after Sepulchre), Freddie Watson is a stilted young man who has not gotten over older brother George's disappearance on the Western Front during WWI. It is now 10 years since the Armistice, and Freddie, after a stay in a mental institution, has come to the French Pyrenees to find peace. While motoring through a snowstorm, he crashes his car and ends up in the small village of Nulle, where he meets a beautiful young woman named Fabrissa. In the course of an evening, Fabrissa tells Freddie a story of persecution, resistance, and death, hinting at a long-buried secret. By the next morning, she is gone, leaving Freddie alone to unlock a ghostly mystery hidden for 600 years. This is a staunchly old-fashioned story, taking fully 100 pages to get moving, and by the time things pick up, the gist of the narrative will be obvious to anyone who has ever sat through a Twilight Zone episode. Freddie's obtuseness does little to help along a gruel-thin story. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Slimmer than either of her previous titles, Labyrinth (2006) and Sepulchre (2008), Mosse’s latest is set in the years after World War I. Devastated by the death of his older brother, George, in the war, Freddie Watson has traveled to France after recovering from a nervous breakdown on his twenty-first birthday. While driving through the French Pyrenees on a snowy afternoon, he loses control of his vehicle and nearly takes a fatal plunge off the mountains. After managing to free himself from the car, Freddie makes his way to the village of Nulle, where he finds lodging and is invited by the kindly hostess to a celebration that evening. When Freddie makes his way to the town gathering, he meets a beautiful young woman named Fabrissa, who urges him to open up about his grief over George’s death, and shares her own tragic story. The next morning, Freddie awakens with a fever and an overwhelming desire to find Fabrissa, at any cost. Evocative, atmospheric, and mysterious, Mosse’s ghostly tale is the perfect diversion for a chilly winter day. --Kristine Huntley --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Ome (June 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1409117995
• ISBN-13: 978-1409117995
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Mosse is the author of the # 1 International bestseller LABYRINTH, and a presenter for BBC television and radio in London. Born in 1961, she grew up in West Sussex, England, she read English at Oxford and holds honorary MAs from Oxford and Chichester Universities. A publisher for seven years, she is the Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Award for New Writers, the prestigious annual literary awards celebrating international writing in English by women. She is also a television and radio presenter for the BBC in London, fronting such series as 'The Readers & Writers Roadshow' and 'Open Book.'

Previous books include Becoming a Mother and The House: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as well as two novels Eskimo Kissing and Crucifix Lane. LABYRINTH, her international # 1 bestseller, was published in the UK in July 2005. A Sunday Times #1 bestseller in hardback and paperback, and a New York Times Top 10 bestseller, it was the over all best selling book in the UK for 2006 and won 'Best Read of the Year' in the British Book Awards. It is also shortlisted for the IMPAC international literary award, for a CWA Steel Dagger and has been shortlisted for 'Author of the Year' for the 2007 British Book Awards. LABYRINTH is published in 40 countries.

A former Executive Director of Chichester Festival Theatre, Kate is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, a Board member of the international sponsorship organisation Arts & Business, Kate was named International Woman of Achievement in 2000 for her contribution to the Arts.

Kate lives with her husband and two teenage children in Sussex, England, and Carcassonne, southwest France.