Winter Kept Us Warm: A Novel

By Anne Raeff

"Every word here feels set down with care and fierce conscience. The resulting narrative glows." —San Francisco Chronicle

A novel of rich details and landscapes, Winter Kept Us Warm follows three friends through six decades — from postwar Berlin to Manhattan, 1960s Los Angeles to contemporary Morocco. A twisting narrative reveals their mysteries in fragments, examining their long-ago love triangle and how it changed their lives forever.

"This novel is a profound success that manages to take its place in the canon of excellent war literature while also maintaining a kind of magical surreality . . . This is an astonishing read, a best-of, and a masterful treatise on enduring." —Lambda Literary

• Language: English
• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781619028302

Anne Raeff

ANNE RAEFF is a high school teacher at East Palo Alto Academy, where she teaches English and history. Her stories and essays have appeared in the New England Review, ZYZZYVA, and Guernica, among others. Her first novel is Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia.

Reviews for Winter Kept Us Warm

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was a contrived, melodramatic tear jerker but the writing wasn't bad. I can't jump through the hoops required to review this without spoilers so I have put the whole review under a spoiler tag. Just after the end of WWII, two American soldiers Leo and Isaac meet Ulli a young German woman in Berlin. The three form an intense friendship/love triangle despite the fact that none of them really seemed appealing enough to account for the obsession. Isaac loves Ulli, Ulli loves Leo, Leo loves Ulli, but he's secretly gay so that inevitably causes problems in the Ulli/Leo relationship. The book begins 40 years after this first meeting when Isaac pays a surprise visit to Ulli in Morocco and the story goes back and forth between this visit and flashbacks. Isaac has asthma and is constantly grabbing for his inhaler, so you kind of get a hint where things are headed. It's like in old movies where someone has a little cough at the beginning of the movie. All three of the friends wind up in New York. Ulli and Leo have two daughters who are abandoned by their parents when they are 4 and 5 after Leo finally leaves Ulli for a man. However good old Isaac is still around and adopts the daughters who are just delighted to be raised by their new "father", who is also delighted. It reminded me of Now, Voyager, the old Bette Davis movie, in which Davis is thrilled to take care of her married lover's daughter as a means of staying close to him while he stays with his wife. "...don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." That line made me laugh when I first saw the movie and I still don't buy the motivation. Oh, and Leo doesn't come to a good end either. I kept reading the book so it wasn't all bad, but I thought it was more manipulative than it was poignant. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a good enough novel, but I never really felt as through I could like any of the characters and they felt unduly connected to each other while each lived a life beset with tragedy. I can see why some would love this book and proclaim it to be profound, but I'm simply happy I finished it. Perhaps in time, I might grow to appreciate this type of book, but for now, it's just not for me.

[mnpose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is not a book for everyone. It is actually a pretty tough read - sad and lonely, I think.There is a quiet story line about love in all of it’s shapes and sizes. I would not recommend this book to everyone but it is definitely a beautiful worthwhile read. I think it will stay with me for quite a while.