Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (2020) is the second memoir by British author Katherine May and a New York Times bestseller. May’s text addresses literal and metaphorical winters—both the severe boreal time of the year and the fallow or chaotic periods in life. Her treatise on learning to love and gaining deep insight from winter was personal and yet resonated with readers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In May’s native Britain, Wintering was published in February 2020, before the global coronavirus pandemic forced most Europeans into lockdown. Guardian reviewer Kate Kellaway calls the book “a reading cure,” adding that she found May’s writing style so poetic and persuasive that she “could protectively convince us of anything” (Kellaway, Kate. “Wintering review-learning to love the cold.” The Guardian. 4 Feb. 2020).

While the book’s message was hopeful and uplifting in relatively ordinary times, it gained added appeal by the time of the US publication in Fall 2020, when the universal wintering of the pandemic turned life upside down. Sarah Lyall’s New York Times review of December 22, 2020 accounts for this, stating that May’s “writing about the healing powers of the natural world is wonderful” and that “it is comforting to read ‘Wintering’ in the midst of the pandemic, especially on the eve of what looks to be a dark and terrible winter that may—with luck—presage better times” (Lyall, Sarah.