Winter Willow

Description

During a winter season in the mid-1970s, unexpected and dramatic events shape the lives of three people living in the mansion, Winter Willow.

Melanie, a young graduate student, is grieving the loss of her mother and main support system when she discovers that her PhD funding has been cancelled. Then she meets Stone, owner of Winter Willow, an old mansion in her neighbourhood, and is offered a position as his personal assistant. Moving in with him during that snowy and isolating season not only creates a strange sleepiness that makes it difficult for Melanie to concentrate on her studies, but also serves to disrupt the life and routine of Stone and his housekeeper, Celeste.

When Melanie begins a relationship with a fellow grad student, she is confronted with the choice between a future with him and her life at Winter Willow. This novel explores the moment when a life can change, the pivot upon which the future depends.

Read an interview with Deborah-Anne Tunney here.

Praise for Winter Willow

“The story’s eerie and atmospheric setting is exploited to stunning effect. — The Miramichi Reader

“Deborah-Anne Tunney’s Winter Willow is a sustained note of subdued tension, a gentle haunting, a wholly immersive story about what we lose and what we create” — PRISM International

“Winter Willow is an intriguing, compelling and thought-provoking debut novel . . . The descriptions of relentless snow and of Stone’s lovely but doomed old house and garden, along with the beautiful writing, make this a fine and memorable novel.” – Sonia Tilson, author of The Monkey Puzzle and The Disappearing Boy

“The book is replete with insights about memory and art, and offers rich rewards to the reader” — Frances Boyle, The New Quarterly

Praise for Deborah-Anne Tunney

“Deborah Tunney is a wonderful writer. She writes about the everyday in a way that illuminates our lives. She is observant, generous and wise.” –Mary Borsky, author of Cobalt Blue: Stories and others

Praise for The View From The Lane by Deborah-Anne Tunney

“Tunney’s prose is the kind that makes her reader sit up and take notice” –Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This

“Each story stands on its own, but woven together in one book, the stories become richer, revealing a woman’s life through memories and the people who influenced her. The View From The Lane is a satisfying read.”-The Winnipeg Review

“These thoughtful, poignant stories are the product of a careful imagination that succeeds in presenting the complexity of the protagonist’s life in prose both beautifully poetic and sharply insightful.” –Isabel Huggan, author of Belonging: Home Away from Home