The Winter People

5 of 5
The Winter People
336 pages; Doubleday
Moving between a present-day disappearance of a small-town mother in Vermont and the diary entries of a turn-of-the-last-century farm wife, The Winter People tells a ghost story that is both all too human and supernatural. In 1908, Sara Harrison Shea's world falls apart after the death of her 8-year-old daughter Gertie.  Soon she's convinced she can bring her child back to life using a ritual passed down by a mysterious woman from her past. This same ceremony drives the contemporary story, after Alice Washburne's daughters, 19-year-old Ruthie and 6-year-old Fawn discover  pages from Sara's diary—and find out the violent lengths others in town are willing to go to obtain them. Divided by a century but united by loss, all the characters are, in their own ways, like Sara: imagining killing themselves endlessly in their dreams only to "wake up weeping, full of sorrow to find [themselves] alive" and alone. A hauntingly beautiful read.
— Jordan Foster