Excerpt from Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The plane turned on its side and below they could see Amsterdam.

'It was summer last time,' said Stella. 'We flew over tulip fields. From the air they looked like freshly opened plasticine. Rows and ridges. All primary colours.'

'Looks very grey now.'

'If it's raining I wouldn't mind a snooze when we get as far as the hotel.'

'In the middle of the afternoon?'

'Last night I discovered what bad sleep is.'

'What?'

'Lying awake. You and your music,' she said.

'You never go to bed in the afternoon at home.'

'Away is different.'


The first smell in the airport building was of flowers. Hyacinths in January. Stella drew some euros from a hole-in-the- wall machine after checking the exchange rates. It shelled out high-denomination notes only and she tut-tutted. She gave half to Gerry and he slid them into his wallet. As they made their way to the train station Gerry pointed at her wristbands.

'You can take those things off now.'

'They keep me nice and warm.' Stella's face was turned up to the huge noticeboard.

'Look.'

'What?'

'Europe,' she said. 'Does that not do something to the hairs on the back of your neck? To be on the same piece of land? Rome, Warsaw, Berlin, Prague. Moscow, even. You could get on a train . . .'

'Let's get to Amsterdam first.'

The board changed with a roar and a flutter of individual letters and in an instant the whole board trembled and all the information leapt up a line.


'Double-decker trains,' said Gerry.

'You're such a boy sometimes.'

They found a place in an empty carriage and got settled. 'Which direction are we going?'

Gerry pointed. Stella changed her seat.

'You're a forward-looking woman.'

'Always have been.'

The train pulled out and cleared the terminal. It was grey and raining. Stella wriggled her hands out of the wristbands and put them in her bag.

'We should jump in a taxi,' she said. 'Around the station can be a bit unsavoury. Last time we were lugging our cases through junkies and ne'er-do-wells. In the days before cases had wheels.'

'It's all going far too well,' said Gerry. 'A bad omen.'

Excerpted from Midwinter Breakby Bernard MacLaverty. Copyright © 2017 Bernard MacLaverty. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.