Tom Winter is a British writer living in Berlin. His debut novel, Lost & Found, was published in five languages, with an English audio book to follow. Arms Wide Open (2014) is his second book. The Daily Mail said of him that he was “Witty, off-beat and moving … Tom Winter delights with a deadpan turn of phrase.” You will find this a bittersweet joy of a book. He offers his own blend of pathos and laugh-out-loud moments. If occasionally you’re up for trying a not fully established author, give Tom Winter a go.
The summary of Arms Wide Open is as follows. Jack and Meredith are non-identical twins; the only similarity between them is their lives rapidly falling apart. Jack’s high-flying career in advertising has crashed and burned. Meredith’s world is also crumbling – a decomposing yogurt in her fridge now a symbol of her failed marriage. Her children, Jemima and Luke, offer little support, too consumed with the worlds of online dating and amateur taxidermy. All their lives, Jack and Meredith believed their father to be dead. One day, a throwaway comment leads Jack to question this, but with their mother fading ever-deeper into the grip of dementia, answers are hard to come by. As revelations start to untangle, the twins soon learn that what you seek is not always what you find.
ISBN 978-1472101686
Tom Winter