This book focuses on the ways the author’s culture (UK) and other European cultures prepare for and care for themselves during winter. She connects each essay to how we can handle and experience our own winters in our lives. 

While some anecdotes were more effective than others, I found myself drawn to this audiobook even after thinking to DNF it halfway through. We winter cyclically in our lives. We have highs and lows. Not a novel idea but one repeatedly brought up in this book. There are themes of preparation, self-care, embrace, and empathy (both to yourself in times of hardship and toward others in their hardships). Did I walk away with new insight? Sure. Life-changing? Not really. 

On a personal note, I related much of this book to my own period of wintering end of last year and beginning of this year. There were many lows and I was also literally living in a harsh winter. The best quote was something like “our present will someday become our past. We know this true because it has happened before. Our future will one day be our present.” (Not exact bc its tough to get quotes from audiobooks) My own winter is now something I can reflect on when in the moment, it felt forever. My present may not last forever but each winter prepares me for the next.