The Winter Station, Jody Shields
The Winter Station, Jody Shields
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The Winter Station

Author: Jody Shields

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 10 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/30/2018

Synopsis

An aristocratic Russian doctor races to contain a deadly plague in an outpost city in Manchuria - before it spreads to the rest of the world.

1910: people are mysteriously dying at an alarming rate in the Russian-ruled city of Kharbin, a major railway outpost in Northern China. Strangely, some of the dead bodies vanish before they can be identified.

During a dangerously cold winter in a city gripped by fear, the Baron, a wealthy Russian aristocrat and the city's medical commissioner, is determined to stop this mysterious plague. Battling local customs, an occupying army, and a brutal epidemic with no name, the Baron is torn between duty and compassion, between Western medical science and respect for Chinese tradition. His allies include a French doctor, a black marketeer, and a charismatic Chinese dwarf. His greatest refuge is the intimacy he shares with his young Chinese wife - but she has secrets of her own.

Based on a true story that has been lost to history, set during the last days of imperial Russia, The Winter Station is a richly textured and brilliant novel about mortality, fear and love.

About Jody Shields

Jody Shields is a former design editor of the New York Times Magazine and a former editor at Vogue, House and Garden, and Details. She is the author of two nonfiction fashion books, All That Glitters and A Stylish History. Jody has also written several screenplays and has a master's degree in art. Her prints are in various collections, including the Museum of Modern Art. She lives in New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Stacia on April 08, 2018

I think Jody Shields' interests & strengths as a writer are in creating an artistic, atmospheric experience. If you're looking for a purely plot-driven story, her work is not going to satisfy you. I love the way she writes & explores intersections: meetings, clashings, & meldings of cultures, times,......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on December 08, 2017

The Winter Station by Jody Shields was just the read I needed. I was experiencing a lack of motivation and knew it was time to pick up a book that would sweep me along into it's world. Based on a "true story that has been lost to history," the atmospheric setting is beautifully detailed, the mystery......more

Goodreads review by Stuart on November 30, 2017

I really wanted to like this book. It’s solidly written with some lovely turns of phrase; the main character is developed well enough (though I’m afraid I can’t quite say the same for many of the supporting cast); and the plot, at least in summary (A mysterious plague has struck! Can the city’s doct......more

Goodreads review by Heather on February 02, 2018

Jody Shields’s new novel, “The Winter Station,” takes place in 1910 Kharbin, a bleak Russian-controlled outpost in Manchuria. People are dying; their bodies are disappearing mysteriously. Baron von Budberg, the town’s aristocratic doctor, discovers an epidemic and a coverup. In this tale based on an......more

Goodreads review by Nada on February 12, 2020

The Winter Station byJody Shields once again reaffirms the role historical fiction plays in introducing me to history I don't know. I end up spending more time with the history than the story itself. The history is fascinating. The story as told in the book is compelling in the intensity of the situ......more

Quotes

"Based on real events, this is the kind of fiction that fascinates with its power to evoke time and place, morality and mortality, tenderness and love."—Bookpage

"Shields writes movingly of the human cost of this forgotten epidemic. She reminds us that, to an imperceptible enemy, the lines dividing nations are only a mark on a map."—Shelf-Awareness

"Shields presents her novel with the detail and fluidity of the early Russian novelists... THE WINTER STATION offers much for readers of historical fiction."—Bookreporter

"Like a delicate calligraphy, Jody Shields paints a starkly moving picture of our elusive humanity, as ephemeral and beautiful as snowflakes falling from a frozen sky. The images are unforgettable, and the book highly recommended."—Historical Novel Society

"Shields has transformed the scantly recorded memories of the Manchurian plague into a rich narrative, factual in its details and vitalized by the moral complexities of prejudice, politics, honor and responsibility."—Lincoln Star Journal

"If you love historical fiction, you don't want to miss The Winter Station.... the perfect moody book to read on a chilly winter day."—Hello Giggles

"What Shields evokes in her greatest passages...is a fear that pours from the temples: the recognition that we can be set against a swift and terrible force majeure."—Paste Magazine

"The true gift of this remarkable novel is its lyrical portrayal of the Baron and his few allies...Shields (The Fig Eater) joins the high echelon of Boris Akunin and Sam Eastland in re-creating a time when science and reason vie with superstition and prejudice to protect the helpless subjects of the tsar."—Library Journal

"The slow growth of the horror and helplessness of those who can really see the crises growing is beautifully drawn"—STAT News

"[Readers will be] captivated by the atmosphere and the various, essay-like ruminations, which evoke Peter Høeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow (1993)."—Booklist

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