A Long Winter

Now available in a beautifully designed standalone edition, A Long Winter is one of Colm Tóibín’s most poignant and masterfully restrained short stories—hailed by The Guardian as “the most striking example of Tóibín’s emotional control.” This edition also includes a new afterword by the author, offering insight into the origins of the tale.

Set in the remote Catalan Pyrenees, the story follows Miquel, a young man returning home after completing his military service. His brother Jordi is preparing to leave for his own tour, and the brief overlap in their lives casts a quiet shadow of transition. But it is their mother’s increasingly erratic behavior—marked by secrecy and drink—that unsettles Miquel most.

As tensions rise, their father makes a devastating decision. In the wake of his betrayal, the mother vanishes into the mountains just as winter tightens its grip. A blizzard descends. The search proves hopeless. The family must wait—through silence, guilt, and grief—until the spring thaw offers resolution.

Spare, elegiac, and quietly devastating, A Long Winter is a powerful meditation on familial bonds, emotional absence, and the desolate beauty of a landscape that mirrors the soul. In just a few taut, resonant pages, Tóibín delivers a haunting portrait of a family in crisis—and the silences that shape their lives.