Introducing our December Book of the Month ~ The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse





From the Book Cover:

The Great War robbed a generation of friends, lovers and their gilded youth. In Freddie Watson’s case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. Haunted by his loss and fearing for his sanity, he still seeks some sort of resolution.
In the winter of 1928, Freddie is travelling through southern France - which has also seen too much bloodshed over the years – when his car spins off the road in a storm. Shaken he stumbles into the woods, and takes refuge in an isolated village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful young woman also mourning a lost generation.
Over the course of a single night Freddie and Fabrissa share their stories. And by the time dawn breaks he finds himself holding the key to a heart-breaking mystery.
By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, The Winter Ghosts is a story of lives touched by war, transformed by courage and redeemed by love.


Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399157158
ISBN-13: 978-0399157158

I read this book last Christmas – it’s a quick read only 240 pages depending on the edition. It was originally published in the UK under the title of The Cave and issued as a quick read, but, because the story was so well received – the author Kate Mosse extended the story, and embellished some of the detail.

It's a perfect winter book ~ preferably read with Hot Chocolate and cookies...

More about Kate Mosse Here

Kate Mosse had written other best selling novels. They include:

Labyrinth
Sepulchre

Hope you enjoy it - book opens for discussion on 22nd December

Happy Reading

Hey Sassenach. I don't mean to be a pest, but could we delay this one for a couple of months? I just checked my library for availability and noticed that it is on order with a copyright date of 2011. So, I went to Amazon and it's US release date is listed as Feb 3, 2011. I went ahead and put myself on the wait list, but I likely won't get it until the fist or second week of February. I suspect others on this side of the pond will have the same difficulty.

I do enjoy being part of the monthly book discussions. But, if I can't participate in this one until late, I'm sure that will be OK, too.


ETA: I read Labyrinth a while back, but I haven't read Sepulchre and I just checked and I should be able to get the latter if you wanted to switch books, but stick with this author.

I was able to order a hard copy today from Amazon for $3.63 plus shipping.
Audio, you might be seeing the listing for the pb issue.

Hmmm. I just looked again and it looks like the paperback came out earlier, but the hard cover is available for preorder, which seems a bit backward. And, I just checked my statewide interlibrary loan site and the site for the neighboring state library to which I also have access and there are several of the 2011 versions on order, but there is not a single copy available yet. So, I guess I'll miss this month's discussion, but if if seems like a good read, I'll just read it later and maybe comment here after I do with my thoughts. Better late than never, right?

Here is the link to the Amazon listing from which I ordered my copy.
The 2011 release must be another publisher or American print version.

I saw that page, but didn't see any for less than $6.80. Congrats on getting a great deal. I won't be buying it in any case. I rarely buy books - I don't have enough money or storage space to buy nearly all of what I read and I prefer to use the library. So, I'll just have to wait until the library gets copies in February.

Audio - that you are having problems getting hold of a copy of The Winter Ghosts

The book depository will ship worldwide for free..

Book Depository

The book threads always remain open -so anyone can join in at any stage - and your contribution is always valid.

Spoiler Warning

Book is Open for Discussion


The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse




From the Book Cover:

The Great War robbed a generation of friends, lovers and their gilded youth. In Freddie Watson’s case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. Haunted by his loss and fearing for his sanity, he still seeks some sort of resolution.
In the winter of 1928, Freddie is travelling through southern France - which has also seen too much bloodshed over the years – when his car spins off the road in a storm. Shaken he stumbles into the woods, and takes refuge in an isolated village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful young woman also mourning a lost generation.
Over the course of a single night Freddie and Fabrissa share their stories. And by the time dawn breaks he finds himself holding the key to a heart-breaking mystery.
By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, The Winter Ghosts is a story of lives touched by war, transformed by courage and redeemed by love.


Book Group Questions

“There are moments of intense emotion-love, death, grief-where we may slip between the cracks. Then, I believe that time can stretch or contract or collide in ways science cannot account for...”


• The Winter Ghosts is about Freddie’s journey into the unknown – did you enjoy reading about his journey?
• Do you think The Winter Ghosts works as a ghost story?
• How important is the winter landscape to the story?
• What did Freddie learn about the past?
• Fabrissa is fundamental the outcome of the story - what did you make of her character?



This is a very poignant story of love and loss, and how the ideology of a generation was lost on the battlefields of Northern France during WW1.This area of France has seen such a lot of upheaval across the centuries –the high Pyrenees shelter picture perfect villages that remain largely unspoilt – where it is easy to imagine Fabrissa’s story taking place... the events surrounding the persecution of the Carthars is well documented, and makes for fascinating historical reading....


This is Tarascon-Sur- Ariege

If you enjoyed reading this you would also enjoy;

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Now that some of us have had the chance to read this month's selection, it would be interesting to see what we all made of it. Please post your thoughts; hopefully we'll all have different interpretations of the story. Don’t be afraid to discuss, disagree and generally pull the book to pieces. The questions are just a guide -don't feel you have to answer any, or all of them - your opinions are what matters most....

For those who have had chance to read the book - the discussion thread is now open ...

Here

***SPOILERS APPLY ***

Even if you haven't had chance to get hold of a copy of The Winter Ghosts the discussion thread will remain open and you can post your thoughts any time...

I just finished this book about 10 minutes ago so it's nice and fresh in my mind. When I started reading it, it really had the feel of The Shack to me and I had to check back to see if it was the same author (which it's not). Especially when Freddie has the accident and then goes looking for the Ostal. I knew that he as having some sort of out of body experience.

The town seemed to be haunted by the same thing that haunted Freddie. Death without resolution/acknowledgement, remains hidden from the living. I kind of had trouble understanding the depth of his depression over his brother's death, not so much because it was a brother rather than a lover, but because it didn't look like they were close in age or had this tight history together when they were living other than distant family relations (if that makes any sense or unless I missed something). Not that I make this thought likely since my own brother died when we were in our twenties/thirties and while I felt his loss and his death was horrible, it wasn't sanitorium level. The only thing that I could conclude was that Freddie was a hyper-sensitive soul and that was the reason for Fabrissa's choosing him to fulfill her desire to be discovered.

The winter played into the whole image of death and time frozen. But the part of the book and the lesson learned for me was Fabrissa's message.

And I shall set this last truth down. We are who we are because of those we choose to love and because of those who love us.

That message stood out in my mind as well. I found WG a bit slow in the beginning, but enjoyed reading the descriptions of the scenery and felt as if I were present with Freddie. In fact the pace of the story might have been purposeful to place the reader in Freddies frame of mind. He was aimlessly searching for a reason to live. Once his brother was gone, there was no one who truly cared for him. Freddie was disturbed and distanced from the world because of the loss of his brother, but also because of the lack of affection he received from his parents. While he never uncovered the details of George's death, Freddie was able to release Fabrissa from her imprisonment by discovering the tomb. On pg. 216 we read Freddie's thoughts:

"I knew why I had been brought here. I had been brought to bear witness, both to the manner of their dying and to the nature of the prison I'd fashioned for myself." Without understanding, there can be no redemption. And at that moment it made perfect sense to me how I, a man who for so many years had walked the line between the quick and the dead, might be able to hear their voices in the silence when others could not."

A bit later (pg. 218): "Did I hold her to me then? I cannot have done, for I knew she was shadow and dust. And yet, I have the memory that, for an instant, I felt her warm in my arms and that I sighed. I had come for her and so she had returned to me. Come to take me home."

Guillaume's account to Freddie at the hospital confirms that the ghost of Fabrissa was in the cave and that she had saved him. The unveiling of the memorial at Thiepval in memory of those who died at the Battle of Somme was a moment of closure for Freddie as well. As Fabrissa wrote in her note "I do not fear death. But I fear the forgetting. I fear that there will be no one to mark the moment of our passing. One day, someone will find us. Find us and bring us home. For when all else is done, only words remain. Words endure."

I must say that I enjoyed the last few chapters of WG the most and they left me in a peaceful frame of mind.

I finally managed to get, and read this book. I finished just a little while ago. Like Lady Jayne, I found it a little slow-going early on, but with so few words per page, it still didn't take very long to get through. I ended up enjoying it. Definitely the last part most of all. I really didn't know anything about the history of the Cathars, so that was new to me. I figured out pretty early on the Freddie wasn't at the current-day Ostal and that the people must be ghosts (well, the title kind of suggested that anyway ), and that he would find their bodies, but it was kind of nice going on the journey with him with the descriptions and with his coming to acceptance of George's death also.

Seems like the parchment was a significant piece of history as part of the site, so part of me kept thinking he should donate it to a museum or something.

I read Labyrinth several years ago and my memory is that it was quite long and complicated, so I was surprised when I got this one that it was such a slim book with so few words per page. And, it was a much simpler story. I guess the author can write in somewhat different styles. ;-) (There were similarities too in terms of the dual-time periods and skeletons in caves and all.)