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On frosty nights, as he sits by a flickering fire, Michael Harding withdraws into the stillness of winter and begins to reckon with age and death.
As stories emerge from the shadows, we meet a young boy whose arrival brings hope, but whose journey will know winter’s path. November is a rainstorm, December a bleak twilight, but as January dawns and the ice thaws, the fragile light of love penetrates the dark, bringing beauty to the earth and making new beginnings possible.
In writing of shadowed beauty, Midwinter is a poignant exploration of a season of loss, and the glimpses of hope that can follow even the longest nights.
Midwinter is illustrated by Enagh Farrell.
Michael Harding is an author and playwright. A recipient of the Stewart Parker Award for theatre, a Hennessy Award for Short Stories and a Bank of Ireland/RTÉ award for Excellence in the Arts in 1990, he has written numerous plays for the Abbey Theatre and was writer in association with the National Theatre in 1993.
His novels include Bird in the Snow, The Trouble with Sarah Gullion and Priest. He is also the author of several bestselling memoirs including Staring at Lakes (winner of the Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year award), Hanging with the Elephant, On Tuesdays I’m a Buddhist and I Loved Him From the Day He Died.
He is a member of Aosdána, a columnist for over fifteen years with The Irish Times and his podcasts are available on the Patreon platform.