Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan

Julius Winsome

Gerard Donovan

The frozen woods provide the ideal backdrop for this tale of grief, isolation and human choices. The narrator's voice is so gentle and careful that I was continually surprised by the violence described. Like finding out a terrible secret about a good friend, reading 'Julius Winsome' is unnerving, but not horrific.

Extract
I waited for nothing. And nothing arrived. A deep ice stole its way into my heart. I felt it settle in and numb the valves and quiet the wind that blew inside my frame, heard it set upon my bones and breathe silence into the brittle spaces, everything that was broken. At that moment my heart knew the peace of cold. I gave up on my friend, and the night watch was done, for only his spirit would ever come to me again.
Parallels
  • Heart Songs by Annie Proulx
  • Out Stealing Horses by Per Patterson