Five Tuesdays in Winter - Lily King

Five Tuesdays in Winter is an intimate, nuanced and memorable collection of short stories.

Five Tuesdays in Winter
by Lily King

For the first time ever, Lily King collects ten of her finest short stories, opening fresh realms of discovery for avid and new readers alike.

Told in the intimate voices of unique and endearing characters of all ages, these tales explore desire and heartache, loss and discovery, moments of jolting violence and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A bookseller’s unspoken love for his employee rises to the surface, a neglected teenage boy finds much-needed nurturing from an unlikely pair of college students hired to housesit, a girl’s loss of innocence at the hands of her employer’s son becomes a catalyst for strength and confidence, and a proud nonagenarian rages helplessly in his granddaughter’s hospital room. Romantic, hopeful, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, some even slipping into the surreal, these stories are, above all, about King’s enduring subject of love.

Please note that I received an uncorrected proof copy to read and review. Thanks Picador!

Five Tuesdays in Winter Review

I don’t read short stories very often but being a creative writing student I felt that it would be helpful, so luckily for me the stars aligned and Lily King has a new collection coming out this Jan. I read Writers & Lovers last year and really enjoyed it, so I was eager to read more by the same author.

If you liked Writers & Lovers as I did, I think you will enjoy this short story collection. It is full of the same nuance, subtleties and intimacy that Lily King does so well.

All ten stories touched me in different ways but I particularly enjoyed When in the Dordogne, a story of a teenage boy who is left in the care of two college students whilst his parents are in Europe. It’s a wonderful coming of age tale, as he learns new things from them and sees his life from their eyes. It’s a nod to the impact people can have on your life, big or small, even if your paths diverge. I also enjoyed the title story Five Tuesdays in Winter about a bookseller who is falling for his colleague and bringing up his teenage daughter at the same time.

Lily King’s writing reminds me of Elizabeth Strout, in the way that she writes about small, fleeting moments in a person’s life, but in a way that makes them more important than any big moment.

I will be recommending this to everyone when it comes out!

My rating:

 5/5

Five Tuesdays in Winter is published 20/01/22.
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