Winter's Tale - by Mark Helprin (Paperback)

About the Book

A breathtaking novel by the author of "A Soldier of the Great War," this is a book about the beauty and complexity of the human soul, about God, love, and justice.

Book Synopsis

A #1 New York Times Bestseller: Mark Helprin's masterpiece of magical realism transports you to New York of the Belle Époque, to a city clarified by a siege of unprecedented snows, and to an epic love story that is one of the most beautiful and unforgettable in American literature.

One winter night, Peter Lake--master mechanic and second-story man--attempts to rob a fortresslike mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks it is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the affair between a middle-aged Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl dying of consumption. It is a love so powerful that Peter, a simple and uneducated man caught in a battle of good vs. evil, will be driven to stop time and bring back the dead.

"Utterly extraordinary . . . A piercing sense of the beautiful arising from narrative and emotional fantasy is everywhere alive in the novel . . . Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled."-- New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover

"He creates tableaux of such beauty and clarity that the inner eye is stunned." - Publisher's Weekly
Mark Helprin's magical masterpiece will transport you to New York of the Belle Epoque, to a city clarified by a siege of unprecedented snows. One winter night, Peter Lake - master mechanic and master second-storey man - attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks it is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the affair between a middle-aged Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl who is dying of consumption. It is a love so powerful that Peter Lake, a simple and uneducated man, will be driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.
"This novel stretches the boundaries of contemporary literature. It is a gifted writer's love affair with the language." - Newsday
"Is it not astonishing that a work so rooted in fantasy, filled with narrative high jinks and comic flights, stands forth centrally as a moral discourse? It is indeed . . . . I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance." - Front Page, The New York Times Book Review
A New York Times Bestseller
Educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, Mark Helprin served in the Israeli army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, Refiner's Fire, Ellis Island and Other Stories, Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir from Antproof Case, The Pacific and Other Stories, and Freddy and Fredericka.

Review Quotes

"Utterly extraordinary . . . A piercing sense of the beautiful arising from narrative and emotional fantasy is everywhere alive in the novel . . . Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled." - New York Times Book Review

"This novel stretches the boundaries of contemporary literature. It is a gifted writer's love affair with the language." - Newsday

"A prodigious, imaginative vibration of a novel." - D.T. Max, New York Times

"A book of wonders." - Vanity Fair