The Land in Winter

December 1962. In a quiet corner of England’s West Country, as snow begins to fall, two neighboring couples wake to the stillness of a world on the edge of change.

Dr. Eric Parry heads out on his rounds, carrying the weight of secrets he cannot share with his pregnant wife, Irene. At home, Irene senses the widening gap between them, her thoughts drifting through the silence of their strained marriage.

Just across the frozen field, Rita Simmons—a fiery, unsettled soul—awaits the birth of her child. Once wild and untethered, she now finds herself confined by the rhythms of farm life and the unspoken past her husband, George, insists they leave behind. George, steadfast and quiet, is determined to forge a future untouched by the shadows of his family’s history.

When Irene and Rita meet in the space between their homes, a quiet connection sparks—a flicker of warmth in the deepening cold. In both households, love exists, but uneasily; promises hang in the air, suspended in doubt. And as the country succumbs to the harshest winter in living memory, isolation, desire, and the weight of unspoken truths threaten to undo everything they hold dear.

Longlisted for The 2025 Booker Prize. Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.