Winter's Breath

Axel Carstairs's world-famous writer mother has always been somewhat of a mystery. Even to him. She doesn't use her real name in public; she straightens her hair every morning; she avoids cinnamon biscuits and certain animals.

Deep down, Axel suspects her enigmatic character is due to an unspoken event in her murky past, when she had a falling-out with her parents and allegedly never went back. But Valerie is too good at concealing her secrets, refusing to confide them in anyone... until one day, when a mysterious letter containing a paper magpie and a metal cat arrives on her doorstep.

Finally, a sign.

Valerie gives in and hands her son her diary, in which she's written the manuscript of her latest novel. It's about herself and the secrets she never meant to tell. As Axel reads the pages filled with his mother's past and shocking truths, he wonders if the blind trust he always put in his mother has begun to fray-and if the truth alone is enough to reconcile family.