A novel depicting a spiky father-son relationship tested to its limits on their last holiday together.

 

A nine-day winter break in Tenerife. Nothing is quite good enough. A son tries in vain to ask his ailing, elderly Irish Jewish father questions about their past before it’s too late. The absurdity and hilarity of family holidays in the sun are brought to life in this sharp and fiercely honest novel that crosses borders, carrying the reader on a tide of childhood pain, a search for identity, and growth.

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Finalist in the 2020 Irish Novel Fair
Placed highly in the Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize 2020

 

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“Bittersweet, funny and tender, Winter Sun is about the mysterious relationship between parent and adult child, the fragility of the ageing body, the strangeness of family holidays and the comforts of alcohol and literature. You can’t help falling in love with Miki and Abba, willing them on to find a common language—and ideally a whiskey they can both agree on.”

Viv Groskop, author of The Anna Karenina Fix

 

“Written from the heart, with skill and honesty, this is a warm, highly intelligent novel. Just beautiful. I was thoroughly moved by Winter Sun. An elegantly constructed, moving and hilarious read that brings the reader to Tenerife, the Hotel Optimist and home again, with some elegant twists and thought provoking questions about how we love each other, and how maybe imperfect love is love enough. A page turner!”

Niamh Boyce, author of The Herbalist and Her Kind

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“A gentle, finely crafted novel with a brilliantly realised father-son relationship, and a nuanced, beautifully written observation of old age. It’s fitting our narrator reads Saul Bellow in this book, because for me, Lentin’s achievement in Winter Sun sits alongside Bellow’s in Seize the Day; they both create such a memorable and vivid rendering of a father-son relationship in adulthood.”

Kevin Curran, author of Youth, Citizens and Beatsploitation

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“Winter Sun is a candid, sometimes darkly humorous book, about a man who goes on holiday with his elderly father to Tenerife. A clever portrait of a stormy but ultimately loving relationship between father and son, the story falls somewhere between novel and memoir, exploring themes of loss and identity through beautiful prose, with moments of sharp wit and insight. Winter Sun will no doubt speak to fathers and sons everywhere – an engrossing read, with lots of heart!”

Jane Labous, author of Past Participle 

 

“I enjoyed this very much. The situation and location added a wonderfully strange atmosphere. By making his story very specifically Jewish/Irish, Lentin actually releases its universal quality. Everything about the characters and their relationship feels recognisable and true for sons and fathers everywhere. There will be no final answers. Beautifully achieved.”
Gerry Stembridge, Author of The Effect of Her, Ordinary Decent Criminal and the film Nora