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A love story that’s not quite romance in ‘The Heart of Winter’ 

By Terri Schlichenmeyer 

The Bookworm Sez 

“The Heart of Winter” by Jonathan Evison 

c.2024 / Dutton / $28 / 358 pages 

To have and to hold from this day forward. 

It’s a promise made on a happy day, for richer or poorer, for better for worse. Those vows mean that you’re bound to someone you’ll love, honor, and cherish, in sickness and in health. As in the new novel, “The Heart of Winter” by Jonathan Evison, those promises last for as long as you both shall live. 

The moment Abe Winter laid eyes on Ruth Warneke, he was twitterpated. Smitten.  

It was 1953, and Ruth was unique: smart, confident, outspoken, a woman among girls at her college. Abe pursued her clumsily, but he eventually won her over. 

She was pregnant when they married in 1954 and in a few short years, there were three small children in the household. Abe became a busy insurance salesman with his own office, and he eagerly purchased a small farm outside Seattle on which to raise the kids. Ruth gave up her dreams of poetry and Paris to become a wife and mother, and she was resentful. 

Through the decades, there were indiscretions (Ruth’s) and blatantly thoughtless actions (Abe’s). There was a surprise fourth child, just when they thought their family was complete. There’d been friendships, hurts, loss, and healing, the “kids” were grown and gone and had grandkids of their own now. 

As Abe celebrated his 90th birthday with family, he believed that it would be his last and he silently thought about tying up loose ends so his “Ruthie” and their old dog, Megs, could get along without him. Seventy years was a long time together, a long time to be married to someone, but Abe couldn’t imagine a different life. 

Their vows said “for richer or poorer. In sickness and health.”  

They’d stay that way until death they would part … 

The first thing you need to know about “The Heart of Winter” is that you may cry. It’s not going to be a major snot-cry, but you might expect tears. Bring tissues, in case. 

Spanning two generations and 70-plus years in an ordinary marriage, author Jonathan Evison tells a comfortable, not-so-ordinary tale of love and patience made uniquely special because his characters have such rich lives and big flaws. All of them, in fact, are imperfectly human and individually crafted with nuances that feel exactly right, given their positions within the tale, good, bad, and both. One of them appears, though she’s not really even there.  

This realism — surely, we all know somebody like Abe and Ruth, like their children, like their friends — makes this novel surprisingly emotional and, for some readers, could make it hit pretty close to home. Also, know that if you hate such things, this novel isn’t maudlin or sappy or convoluted. Instead, like real life, it twists and unwinds perfectly.  

If a love story that’s not quite a romance is what you want to start your new year, this dance with your reading soul is it. For you, “The Heart of Winter” is a novel you’ll want to have and to hold.