"The Winter in Anna" REVIEW

“The Winter in Anna” by Reed Karaim

Published by W W Norton & Company

Finished 12/15/16  -  rated 4/5 stars

We are introduced to Anna on the day of her death.  A painful, lonely suicide.  In the remainder of the novel we learn more about Anna through the eyes of the narrator, a long lost friend.  He tells us of his year spent in a tiny town as the editor of the local weekly paper with Anna as the photographer.  Through his stories, and the few Anna shares with him of her past, we are able to get to know Anna a little more and get a better understanding as to why she would take her own life.  Granted, she didn’t leave a note, but one isn’t needed.  You know what internal demons she faced and what event truly broke her heart in pieces.  A heartbreak one never fully recovers from.

I think this novel is beautifully written.  The words simply flow off the pages at times.  Even when occasionally the subject matter is dark, it doesn’t have that dark feel.  There are a couple slow parts in the book (which is why it is a 4 rather than a 5), however, because you are continually becoming more and more attached to the main characters, it’s easy to get through the slower parts.  You still want to keep reading until you know why Anna would want to take her own life, leaving her older children behind.  It was unthinkable to me, until it wasn’t.

Thank you to Net Galley and W W Norton & Company for an advanced copy of this novel.