A Mind of Winter (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | Shira Nayman | knygos.lt

"A marvelous book that sweeps across decades and around the world."—Jed Horne, author of Desire Street and Breach of Faith

"Shira Nayman's sentences have heft and spine and grace, and her vision is clear and generous."—Mary Gordon, author of Spending

"Shira Nayman writes with wisdom and courage." —Ursula Hegi, author of Sacred Time

Oscar is a mysterious Englishman who presides over Ellis Park, a sprawling mansion in East Hampton, Long Island. It is 1951, and as the jazz bands play and the ever-present houseguests waft through the mansion, the war seems much farther away than a mere six years. Oscar, however, is tormented by his own questionable wartime dealings and he is also haunted by memories of Christine, his great love who, after the war, sailed away to Shanghai.

One of Oscar's frequent houseguests, Marilyn, a photographer who spent the war years in England, has moved into Ellis Park for the summer to work on her photo book. Marilyn reminds Oscar of Christine and he enjoys spending time with her; Oscar also suspects that Marilyn has embarked on an affair with another houseguest—Barnaby, a swashbuckling character whose far-flung wanderings included a long stint in Shanghai, where Barnaby himself was involved with Christine.

The narrative unfolds through the three different points of view of Oscar, Christine, and Marilyn, in cities on three continents—East Hampton, Shanghai, and London. A Mind of Winter is a complex, page-turning, literary psychological thriller, that takes up a rich array of themes.

Shira Nayman is a clinical psychologist who works as a strategic brand marketer and also teaches fiction writing at Barnard College. She has published fiction and nonfiction in The Atlantic, the Georgia Review, New England Review, and elsewhere, and is the author of two works of fiction, Awake in the Dark (novella and stories) and The Listener (a novel).