A Week in Winter

March 4, 2013
This less-than-thrilling final work (after Minding Frankie) in the late Irish novelistâs prolific oeuvre tells the life stories of a cast of characters that show up for a weekâs stay at a bed and breakfast called Stone House. The house is located in the idyllic village of Stoneybridge on western Irelandâs "wet and wild and lonely" Atlantic coast. Binchy begins with the hotelâs founder and proprietor, Chicky Starr, whose life hasnât turned out the way sheâd hoped. Several disparate narratives overlap and intermingle in various ways, as the reader views the charactersââwho each receive their own chapterââfrom the othersâ perspectives. Binchy encapsulates the lives of her characters with such authority and so completely that there is little room for mystery or urgency. The reader gets the sense that all of the intrigue has been removed from the charactersâ unique yet matter-of-fact lives. The novel, however, is welcome territory for those looking for a feel-good read, and as Binchy writes, no matter how awry their lives seem to go, "It was all going to be fine."

Starred review from February 1, 2013
The beloved, prolific Binchy's posthumous last novel is classic Binchy (Minding Frankie, 2011, etc.), peeking into the lives of characters from various walks of life brought together at a newly opened inn on the West Coast of Ireland. After 20 years in America and pretending she's been widowed by an American husband she never actually married, Chicky returns to her hometown of Stoneybridge to turn an elderly spinster's run-down cliffside mansion into an inn. To help renovate Stone House, she hires her childhood friend Nuala's son, Rigger, whose history of delinquency has made Nuala desperate to remove him from Dublin, where she's raised him as a single mother. Soon, Rigger is morally reformed and in love. To run the business end, Chicky hires her niece Orla, whose life in London has soured. Together, they get the place ready for the first week of paying guests: 34-year-old nurse Winnie arrives trapped into a vacation with her boyfriend's sophisticated, disapproving mother. A famous American actor takes advantage of a missed flight connection to escape the trappings of stardom for a week. Married doctors come for a respite from their crippling if unwarranted sense of responsibility for the terrible deaths they have witnessed. The heir to a Swedish accounting firm, who has set his father's expectations above his own love of music, comes to Stoneybridge to look up a musician friend. A husband and wife, whose lives together revolve around entering contests, consider their week at Stone House a disappointing consolation prize compared to the trip to Paris they didn't win. A retired girls' school principal receives the Stoneybridge vacation as a retirement gift she refuses to enjoy. And a clairvoyant librarian in love with a married man comes for a week to recover from her broken heart and avoid her second sight. While Binchy's stories are sketchier than usual, perhaps understandably rushed, her fans will find solace as hearts mend and relationships sort themselves out one last time.

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February 15, 2013
Published posthumously, the late great Binchy's last novel is an appropriately heartwarming and spirit-restoring swan song. In classic Binchy style, the gentle story is populated with a large cast of often eccentric, always endearing, characters who effortlessly weave their way in and out of a deceptively simple narrative. Stone House, a country inn on the West Coast of Ireland, is owned and operated by Chicky Starr, a Stoneybridge native lately returned after living a largely lonely life in the U.S., and it serves as the cozy setting for these interrelated tales of love, loss, friendship, and community. Specializing in winter holidays, Stone House plays host to a variety of guests whose lives are bound to change for the better once they succumb to both its vintage charms and the restorative powers of companionship and human kindness. Pour yourself a cup of tea, put your feet up, and prepare to savor this bit of comfort food for the soul. High-Demand Backstory: The late Binchy's last hurrah does not disappoint; expect even more demand than usual for this final love letter to her legion of fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)