Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

I have been reading a most unusual story, written by our good friend, Audrey Driscoll.

The book description caught my interest, but didn’t prepare me for such an amazing roller coaster of a story…

Winter Journeys is a story about the power of music and imagination.

In 1827, a year before his death, composer Franz Schubert wrote twenty-four songs that trace the physical and mental trajectory of a man who has parted from the young woman for whom he had romantic feelings. Wandering the winter countryside, he passes from sorrow to disillusion, anger, confusion, irony, loneliness, and a final surrender—to madness?

In 1987, Ilona Miller’s final year at university, she is enchanted by a recorded voice singing those twenty-four songs. A misfit who has struggled to please and succeed, she becomes an explorer of uncontrolled emotions. When she meets a man who seems to embody the marvellous voice, she acts out her romantic imaginings, but her giddy joy soon spirals into chaos.

In 2007, Ilona Miller is downsized from her office job. Instead of adjusting her attitude, upgrading her skills, and sending out resumes, she retreats into grief and paranoid imaginings. Her walks along streets and seashores awaken a long-suppressed alter ego and summon a parade of lost memories. Did the choices she made twenty years ago harm someone besides herself? Who is the man whose harmonica she hears at night? And where is she going now?

About the author

Audrey Driscoll

Audrey Driscoll grew up reading books and became interested in making stories. As a child, she made her friends act out little dramas based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, her favourite at the time.

After establishing a career as a librarian – first at the University of Saskatchewan and then at the Greater Victoria Public Library in British Columbia – a meaningful encounter with H.P. Lovecraft’s character Herbert West turned Audrey into a writer.

The result was The Friendship of Mortals and three more novels, which became the Herbert West Series. Two other novels followed, as well as a collection of short stories.

When she isn’t juggling words, Audrey Driscoll negotiates with plants in her garden, which is located in Victoria, British Columbia.

Our Review

Winter Journeys has one of the best prologues I have ever read.

Llona Miller’s life isn’t perfect, but it is doable until that fateful day when it wasn’t. I loved how she shared her thoughts while trying to understand everything.

Inevitably, she manages to fall down the rabbit hole, unable to change anything.

I liked the format of this story and the way Llona’s thoughts lead you back and forth depending on their relevance. Comparing her present and student days created a profound exercise as I tracked her journey.

This story, beautifully and soulfully written, inspired me. I have reached a time in my life where my thoughts mirror Llona’s. I came to realise this while reading her words. What I do doesn’t matter much these days, so should I stop wondering and worrying and just do what I want?

Do I even know what that is?

I found this story complex and tense beyond measure, unlike anything I have read before. It was a veritable feast of thoughts and emotions…