Redmond Hatch regresa a la región montañosa donde nació. Allí conoce a Red Strange, un hombre extraño y seductor que toca el violín y cuenta cuentos tan encantadores que los hombres y mujeres de la zona están dispuestos a permitir que se acerque a sus pequeños hijos. Hasta que un día se lo encuentra culpable de actos terribles, cuyas víctimas eran, precisamente, esos niños.
Una vez, Redmond había sido feliz. Estaba casado con la bella Catherine y su hija Immy iluminaba sus días. Pero luego se sintió obligado a protegerla de la infidelidad, la traición y de otros horrores que amenazaban el mágico reino de la pequeña Immy. Ahora Redmond es un vagabundo, perseguido por el espectro terrible de Strange...
Redmond decide reinventarse y se convierte en Dominic Tiernan, un exitoso periodista televisivo, con una nueva esposa y una nueva felicidad. Entonces, vuelve a ver a Catherine, y los antiguos terrores regresan para acosarlo nuevamente

The major strength of Patrick McCabe's novel Winterwood is its first-person narrative that plays on the inconsistencies and unreliability of oral history through the lens of local mythology, resulting in an unreliable narrator whose warped perceptions and memories continually prevent the reader from gaining a firm foothold. That, combined with McCabe's masterful pacing that deftly swings between long intervals of uncertainty and short bursts of escalation and revelation, make Winterwood an unforgettable and suspenseful novel.

An odd story. It goes back and forth in time. A lot of things are never spelled out. There is much left unanswered. He uses the F word too much. But I enjoyed listening to it. ( )

So not to my taste at all. I'm amazed I finished it. Sick and twisted story with no redeeming value. Also, I had the hardest time trying to figure out what was going on, really. ( )

Redmond Hatch was born in Slievenageeha, Ireland and sent to an orphanage by his father when he was young, after his mother died. As an adult he lives in Dublin and London and becomes a journalist. When he returns to Slievenageeha for a story, a place he later comes to call “incest mountain” and “Hillbilly Valley,” his troubles seem to surface.

He meets Ned Hatch, also called Auld Pappy, a local raconteur, fiddler and a kind of pied piper for local children. Ned represents the old ways that are being subsumed by modern culture. All is not as it seems with Ned, as they are with Redmond. He marries twice – both end badly. He alternately idolizes and demonize his wives. He has a daughter that he dotes on but loses contact with. He goes mad, and functions that way for decades.

Redmond is an unreliable narrator, but trustworthy in his utter unreliability. As he slips into madness the story mirrors his decline. Patrick McCabe does insanity like few other writers and makes it terrifying, intriguing and adventurously readable. ( )