Winter’s Bone

"Yes, again I couldn’t recommend this more. There is this bleak, cold, desolate landscape which makes you feel chilled to the bone. It makes you feel unsettled. It is written beautifully. I have read it three times. I went to San Francisco recently for a crime fiction festival and took it with me to read on the plane. I had it in my jacket pocket. I got into San Francisco, didn’t change my jacket, went into the event and who was there but the author, and so I ended up sitting with him and having drinks for a couple of hours. He is a wonderful, charming, delightful guy. He is very humble and unassuming and very smart and just the most tremendous writer. I love what he does. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter In a similar way to Tim O’Brien and Annie Proulx, I just love the way he plays with your emotions by turn of phrase and language. It is just a stunning book which is short and to the point. You really are there with the girl as she looks for her father. And you feel what she is feeling, that sense of urgency and desperation, of desolate loneliness almost, because no one is willing to help her and then you find out why. I think it is an extraordinary work. It is wonderful."