Winterland: A Novel

Written by Rae Meadows

Narrated by Daphne Kouma

"Daphne Kouma offers a beautiful performance, meticulously detailing 8-year-old Anya's experiences. Kouma's credible Russian accents and outstanding character development make this a story filled with heart that listeners won't soon forget."- AudioFile Magazine

Perfection has a cost . . .

Reminiscent of Maggie Shipstead’s Astonish Me and Julia Phillips’s Disappearing Earth, Winterland tells the story of a previous era, shockingly pertinent today, shaped by glory and loss and finding light where none exists.

In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya’s only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp—and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother’s confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Nov 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781250875105

Rae Meadows

Rae Meadows is the author of four previous novels, including I Will Send Rain. She is the recipient of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, the Hackney Literary Award for the novel, and the Utah Book Award, and her work has been published widely. She grew up admiring the Soviet gymnasts of the 1970s, and in her forties decided to go back to the thing she loved as a child. She now trains regularly in gymnastics. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Reviews for Winterland

[Ewa Mewa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story describes Ania, her family and friends and the gymnastics in the Soviet times. I really enjoyed the narrative which let us get to know history of different characters. The plot is very engaging and unfortunetly quite true to what it is said it was to be an athlete In ussr. Would definitely recommend.