Beneath a Midwinter Moon
Historical fiction in vignettes! This collection offers eleven short stories that reflect the theme of winter celebrations in a form that is easy to digest. Much like a holiday smorgasbord, readers can sample a delightful array of different writers’ styles, characters, plots, and settings. The historical backdrops range from the 15th to the 20th centuries, and the geographical locations include India, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The midwinter moon shines on all these locations through holidays such as Christmas, Twelfth Night, New Year’s Eve, and the Indian celebration of Pongal. Frost, snow, ice, and bitterly cold temperatures appear in many of them.
Winter holidays are an excellent theme for a collection because they can be memorable, life-changing moments in many different lives. Some of the different lives here include a French newcomer to England during the Wars of the Roses, a boxer in Georgian London, an Indian- French couple on the cusp of Indian independence, a Dutch grandmother in late Northern Renaissance Holland, an American medic and Belgian nurse during the Battle of the Bulge, and Swiss villagers on the precipice of the industrial age. Young or old, rich or poor, their winter holidays often include both joy and sorrow as well as rage, guilt, and glee. Emotional interactions with families and burgeoning hopes for the future feature in many of them. All these unique stories together underscore the very common human experience of winter holidays. Recommended with gusto for readers wishing to nibble on a wide range of historical fiction pieces in bite size chunks that will nourish their mind and their heart.
