Written by Sam Ali
First off, when I received this book from Penguin Random House Canada, I fell in love with the cover!! (Yes, Guardian, I am going to comment on the beautiful cover because book covers are a perfect, artistic representation for both the author and the story, so tough luck). So, don’t be fooled by the beautiful cover of this book… because the story within is mysterious, obscure, and curious. I opened up the book, read the first chapter, and was hooked.
It starts off with the description of Mr. Winters, his castle, and his relationship with the protagonist. Then, it dives into the history of their relationship, and finally brings us to the present – the protagonist and Mr. Winters move into the Asherley Estate, and the protagonist meets his daughter, Dani Winters. Some creepy events take place, and the protagonist endures the bullying from her step daughter. This book had major Jane Eyre vibes. For those of you that don’t know, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is my favourite book, and I actually studied the book for a whole semester! After reading Jane Eyre, I read and studied Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
This book is a feminist and anti-colonial response to Jane Eyre. It describes Mr. Rochester’s marriage from the point of view of his mad wife, Antoinette Cosway. Antoinette is Rhys’ version of Bronte’s devilish madwoman in the attic. Antoinette’s story is told from the time of her youth in Jamaica, to her unhappy marriage to a certain unnamed English gentleman, who renames her Bertha, declares her mad, and then takes her to England. Antoinette is caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she neither fully belongs to Europe nor Jamaica. Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power relationships between men and women and develops postcolonial themes, such as racism, displacement and assimilation. (Goodreads.com)
So, the reason why I bring this up is because The Winters is so alike to both of these beloved novels/stories: a strange estate, an independent woman who fell in love, an odd, rich gentleman with a secret past, and an eerie setting.
As I continued to read the story, the events taking place were getting spookier, stranger, and overall interesting. The most interesting part of the book, is that as a reader, we never find out the protagonist’s name. Through dialogue, description, thought process, her name is never spoken. I loved this part about the book because it added so much more mystery to the entire story.
After reading this book, I was so lucky to have the author, Lisa Gabriele answer a few questions! Check it out:
Who’s your favourite author?
I have to say Daphne du Maurier, and not just because my book, The Winters, is inspired by her best known novel, Rebecca, but because of the sheer range of her work. She has written speculative fiction, historical fiction, suspense, horror, romance, essays, and biography. But there’s a through line and it’s her impeccable language and surprising plots. She’s a damn great storyteller.
Favourite book or genre to read?
I have a new favourite book all the time. Right now it’s Less by Andrew Sean Greer, tied with Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which you’ll be hearing a lot about before its publication in March, 2019. I tore through both books recently, and they left me breathless and excited about the possibilities of writing meaningful fiction that has wide commercial appeal.
When was the moment you realised that you loved literature?
I say this all the time but I am a far more passionate and talented reader than writer. I love writing, but I fell in love with literature as a reader first, devouring them once I learned how to read, and I’ve never stopped.
What made you want to be a writer?
It was such a natural progression, I don’t ever remember not writing. Since I was eight years old it’s been a compulsion. I have filled notebooks with short stories and have written in diaries well before I ever published a thing. What truly makes me a writer is an inherent need to work something out on paper, usually through made up people. Or to bring to life the stories that seem to float in the ether around me. Writing is also a form of entertaining myself, something I have always enjoyed doing.
What inspired you to write your latest book, The Winters? While I was reading it, I got MAJOR Jane Eyre vibes!
Funny you should say that. My book is a response to du Maurier’s Rebecca, which itself was a response to Jane Eyre. My mother was the one who introduced me to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie version of Rebecca first, and whenever I miss her I reach for it. In the fall of 2016, in the despairing days of the U.S. election, I bought some ice cream and threw in the DVD to drown out the bad news. But this time, instead of comforted, it left me feeling deeply uneasy. I had to remind myself that in Daphne du Maurier’s book Maxim de Winter killed his sexually rebellious first wife, a fact that Hitchcock, due to Production Codes at the time, erased. I suddenly felt this strong desire to avenge Rebecca and punish Maxim. So I guess you could say nostalgia inspired me to reread the book, but anger drove me to write mine.
I found it interesting that we never know the protagonist’s name in the book…what’s the reason?
This was a trope I borrowed from Rebecca, which also has an unnamed narrator, mostly just to see if I could do it, write a book with a nameless narrator. Needless to say it was much harder than I thought it would be.
Did your writing process change at all when you began writing more books?
Luckily, I have always been disciplined. I get up in the morning and have breakfast and then just start writing. I write for four to six hours and then take a nap. Then I try to exercise before supper. I keep my schedule light when I’m writing, so I don’t break a mood. The thing that helps me the most is having a deadline.
Can we expect any more books from you coming up?
Yes, I’m laying the tracks for my next book now, which I think will be in the same suspenseful vein as The Winters, this one about an older women, newly sober, who helps out a younger one, who may not be who she says she is.
Do you have any advice for young writers out there?
Read like crazy, read everything. When you’re not writing, you must be reading. And if you’re not reading, you must be writing.
Gabriele’s novel The Winters is now available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. You can also visit her website: www.lisagabriele.com
Have you read Lisa Gabriele’s The Winters or any of her other books? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
“From the brilliant first line to the shattering conclusion, The Winters will draw you in and leave you breathless. . . . A must read.” —Liv Constantine, author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
Inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, a spellbindingly suspenseful novel set in the moneyed world of the Hamptons, about secrets that refuse to remain buried and consequences that can’t be escaped
After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded Long Island mansion of her new fiancé Max Winter—a wealthy politician and recent widower—and a life of luxury she’s never known. But all is not as it appears at the Asherley estate. The house is steeped in the memory of Max’s beautiful first wife Rebekah, who haunts the young woman’s imagination and feeds her uncertainties, while his very alive teenage daughter Dani makes her life a living hell. She soon realizes there is no clear place for her in this twisted little family: Max and Dani circle each other like cats, a dynamic that both repels and fascinates her, and he harbors political ambitions with which he will allow no woman—alive or dead—to interfere.
As the soon-to-be second Mrs. Winter grows more in love with Max, and more afraid of Dani, she is drawn deeper into the family’s dark secrets—the kind of secrets that could kill her, too. The Winters is a riveting story about what happens when a family’s ghosts resurface and threaten to upend everything.
