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This page talks of those of my books that are written in English. As there are many authors that write or wrote in English in other countries than the United Kingdom or the United States, you will possibly find here writers of the whole world - at long last...
Note that there is not ever a clear limit between fiction and non-fiction. That is why you should also have a look at other departments of this library if you do not find something here.
Mosse, Kate
Kate Mosse was born in 1961. She is an English author and broadcaster. Her greatest success was her bestselling novel Labyrinth. She was granted several literary awards.
For more information on the author, see the English Wikipedia under Kate Mosse.
For a list of her works, see amazon.at, amazon.ca, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es, amazon.fr, or amazon.it.
Kate Mosse, The Winter Ghosts
Novel read in English.
Freddie Watson is a young Englishman. In 1928, he returns to France, where he hopes to find information on some mysterious things that happened to him in the French Pyrenees some years ago. As the only trace he has of those events is a sheet of paper with a text in local patois, he shows this to a competent specialist for explanation. First of all, he tells this man his whole story - as far as he can.
Some years ago, Freddie came to France because he was still incapable to get over the loss of his elder brother, who had died in World War I. He was supposed to find some relief in the foothills of the Pyrenees - but things went wrong. Making his first car trip in a lonesome valley, he had an accident. If he was hit on his head, there was no exterior sign of it. But he heard someone call him, and there was nobody. As his car was in the ditch, he had to walk downhill to Nulle, the nearest village (whose name can be translated by The Middle of Nowhere). He found an accommodation there and was invited to take part in a great fête in the same evening. In the ballroom, he spent all his time with Fabrissa, his young neighbor at the table, explaining her his life and his grief. And while he was talking, the surrounding reality gradually changed to be an imaginary one that made him flee into the forest with Fabrissa. Then she abandoned him, vanishing in the forest, but she told him he could find her somewhere in the hills and alluded to some caverns that nobody had come back from. The next day, Freddie learned that nobody had seen the same events as he had and nobody knew Fabrissa. But Freddie searched for her on the hills, remembering the caverns that seemed to be related to some murderous raids of the German army during World War I. And he found the caverns and the rest of the victims. There was no Fabrissa but he saw many skeletons and an old paper or parchment written with difficulty and incomprehensible for him. Then he had to return to England, regretful.
The old expert manages to read and translate the text and explain the historical background, which is not the one imagined by Freddie. Will this be a solution to Freddie's problems?
Conclusion: This is a fascinating story oscillating between psychologic study, historical thriller, sentimental love story, and pure fantasy. It is well written and manages several very plausible transfers from reality to imagination and vice versa.
The edition I read contained several additional texts in which the author told me her own objectives and the story behind the story. There was also an additional story that related a fictitious journey of Freddie's elder brother to the same places as Freddie, with totally different psychology.
I enjoyed the book!
[hrh 04/21/12]
Hans-Rudolf Hower 2012
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Last updated: April 6, 2016