December - Softcover

Winthrop, Elizabeth H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075318463X ISBN 13: 9780753184639

Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books, 2010

Synopsis

Its December in New England, season of snow, log fires and happy family Christmases. Except not for the Carters. Eleven-year-old Isabelle hasnt spoken for months, countless experts have given up on her, and her parents are at their wits end. Gnawing away at them is the thought that it must be their fault, and that their daughters life might be ruined for good. Something has to give... In this superbly wrought novel, taut with tension, Elizabeth Winthrop portrays a marriage beginning to crack under pressure and a girl whose attempt to control her universe locks her into self-imposed silence.

About this title

Review

Winthrop is brilliant at depicting the bewildering world and its assault on the senses of a struggling adolescent . . . This extraordinary novel seduces as it also challenges: curiously provoking and offering small flashes of illumination, like matches struck in that dim and meaningful space on the far side of language. (Natalie Sandison, The Times)

Like budding artist Isabelle, Winthrop is a master of observation, and her ability to crystallize themes in particular vignettes (fixing a broken phonograph, buying Christmas presents) brings this affecting family drama vividly to life. (Publisher's Weekly)

From the Author

When people ask me what December is about, I sum it up this way, because it is easiest: `It is about an eleven-year old girl who won't speak, and hasn't spoken for the past nine months.' People then want to know why. Why won't she speak? What happened? Will she ever speak again? They generally look forward and backward from the situation, wanting causes and solutions, but what I was more interested in while writing the book was the situation itself, and what effect it was having on the characters involved. Isabelle's silence is the giant beast around which the three main characters triangulate, peering around it at each other when they're not fixating on the thing itself. It brings forth a whole host of emotions in each of the characters: shame, frustration, fear, regret, desperation, anger, hope, and, at the center of it all, love.

People often ask whether there was a time in my life when I, like Isabelle, did not speak. The answer to this is no, but her silence, for me, is a metaphor for the way an adolescent girl might manifest the bewilderment with which she views the world, whether it be through depression, addiction, anorexia, or any other number of ways. It isn't necessarily a response to a specific trauma or event as much as it is a reaction to the difficult task of being alive. In this sense, I am writing for all the girls who allegorically lose their voice for a time in the confusing process of growing up; I have been one of those girls too.

About this edition

• Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 075318463X
• ISBN 13: 9780753184639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368