Synopsis:
When Olga’s friend Lara becomes a grandmother, Olga helps out whenever she can. After all, it’s a big imposition on Lara, looking after her bereaved daughter and the baby. And the new mother is not exactly considerate.
But smouldering beneath Olga’s sensible support and loving generosity is a deep jealous need to be the centre of Lara’s attention and affection—a need that soon becomes a consuming, dangerous, and ultimately tragic obsession.
Review:
When Olga meets her new friend Lara who has recently moved to the neighbourhood to get closer to her daughter, Sophie, and her newborn; one may get an illusion that this is going to be a sweet, simple story about a friendly neighbour who goes an extra mile to help her friend at the time of need. Except that it isn’t just about that.
Told through the first-person narrative- Olga, who lives one floor down to Lara’s, keeps a detailed account of her dawn to dusk routine. Lara and Olga become one solid team in looking after Lara’s daughter, who’s juggling postpartum depression and her new grandchild. Olga’s growing need for attention from her new friend consumes all her remaining sanity and makes you uncomfortable to read what she’s up to till the end of the book.
Have you ever read a beautifully disturbing story? Because A Good Winter is about that and more. It is not your typical psychological thriller! I stayed up late at night to finish what I had picked just a day ago, and this is when I’m not really a psychological thriller fan. I found so much to love in here. The whole narrative is so captivating. It slowly creeps on you and takes an incredible twist when you least expect it. I empathised the most with Olga’s character because one can tell how ruptured she must be from the inside, which eventually led to her becoming the manipulative maniac.
Written by the Kiwi author Gigi Fenster who also won the famous Michael Gifkins Prize for this sizzling novel, A Good Winter is the ultimate result of her exceptional writing and storytelling skills. I highly recommend this as a must-read from 2021, and I can’t wait to see what Gigi has to offer next.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Is A Good Winter on your reading pile?
A Good Winter was published on 14th September 2021 by Text Publishing. You can purchase the book here.
To read our interview with the author Gigi Fenster, click here.
Book Details:
| Title | A Good Winter |
| Author | Gigi Fenster |
| Publisher | Text Publishing |
| Pages | 272 |
| List Price | 32.99$ |