A Meal in Winter

“The book’s deceptive directness and simplicity, and its muted undercurrents of horror, will make many think of . . . Ernest Hemingway. [P]ainful, unconsoling reading . . . a reminder of the power a short, perfect work of fiction can wield.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal  This timeless short novel begins one morning in the dead of winter, during the darkest years of World War II, with three German soldiers heading out into the frozen Polish countryside. They have been charged by their commanders with tracking down and bringing back for execution “one of them”—a Jew. Having flushed out a young man hiding in the woods, they decide to rest in an abandoned house before continuing their journey back to the camp. As they prepare food, they are joined by a passing Pole whose virulent anti-Semitism adds tension to an already charged atmosphere. Before long, the group’s sympathies begin to splinter when each man is forced to confront his own conscience as the moral implications of their murderous mission become clear.   Described by Ian McEwan as “sparse, beautiful and shocking,” A Meal in Winter is a “stark and profound” work by a Booker Prize–nominated author (The New York Times).   “Sustains tension until the very last page.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review