Everything is different in winter. The people disappear insideand count on one another. The film opens with a well-coifed woman in her 60s,in a fur coat, making her way across a field in bitter cold. This is Elspeth( Phyllida Law), and she is on her way to the house of her daughter Frances( Emma Thompson). She fears losing her. Frances' husband has died, and she hasretreated into an angry silence beyond mourning. Perhaps she will leaveScotland and move away with her teenage son Alex ( Gary Hollywood). I loathed, with an extreme passion, Ruth. What a horrid woman. I wanted to gouge her eyes out and sadly, she's half the story.

The accurate history and the events that unfolds makes this book gloomy and the writing makes it somber. January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts – both real and imagined – the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept. Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud’s former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household.

Ruth and Helena are 18 years old, twin sisters, who have taken on the role of caring for their homestead and younger siblings in rural occupied Poland.

Set in 1940, The Winter Guest is a hauntingly evocative tale of two sisters – twins – who are struggling to care for their three younger siblings in rural Poland at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. Their father is dead, and their mother is ill in a hospital in Krakow, and the two girls, Helena and Ruth, are trying to fulfil their mother’s last wish by keeping the family together and keeping them all safe. But with severe food shortages, and the ever-present threat of the encroaching German army, life is tough and getting tougher. Their lives and relationship are about to be altered forever when Helena stumbles upon a downed American airman, Sam, in the forest, who she takes to shelter and secrety tries to help with food and clothing. Gradually they build up a relationship and the story becomes one of a first, deep love which must be kept hidden for their own safety. My main gripe about the book is that Sam is an American airman, serving for the US armed forces. But, the book is set in December 1940, a full year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor which brought the Americans into the war. It could not have happened! He would not have been there! Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day. The sibling rivalry between Ruth and Helena is very well-written, and actually feels quite true-to-life in that sometimes, their petty jealousies eclipse the bigger picture for both of them. When Helena has to tell Ruth about Sam, Ruth immediately thinks that Helena is planning to leave with him, and in her determination not to let that happen, sets in motion a train of events that will have tragic consequences.

Customer reviews

Tom Harkin is determined in his quest for the truth behind Maud’s death. He crosses paths with some very unpleasant characters and his search takes him on an unexpected and dangerous journey. The descriptions of the crumbling walls and shadows of Kilcolgan House are sharply depicted giving the reader a true sense of life for the Anglo-Irish during these senseless and sorrowful times. I just can't with this book. I wanted to love it, I really did. Historical fiction is my thing and I'll try anything centered around World War II. I also received a copy of this through the Goodreads FirstReads program so I really wanted to be able to like it and leave a review saying so. I loved this story because it features two equally strong women as its protagonists, something less often seen in historical fiction than I would like. Jenoff is an excellent historical storyteller; her novels truly capture the hardships faced by mostly ordinary people in wartime. In particular, the overwhelming hunger comes across throughout her writing in this book. Reading this story made me consider the plight of the Polish community during the war, a country sometimes forgotten in history. The book is written in a way that doesn't make it exciting or interesting, thing are just happening, slowly.

While identical in outward appearance, Helena and Ruth are actually as different as chalk and cheese. Helena is a bit of a tomboy and was her father’s companion of choice when it came to hunting expeditions and performing tasks around the home. Ruth has always been regarded as the prettier of the two and is the one imbued with the more traditionally feminine traits – so the pair has fallen into the roles of male and female parents, with Ruth responsible for running the home and the bulk of the child-rearing, while Helena chops wood, fixes things, and hunts for food.

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The film is based on Sharman MacDonald's play, [2] premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (in the Quarry studio theatre, 23 January to 18 February 1995) before transferring to the Almeida Theatre in London (14 March to 15 April 1995).