About this item
"Reminiscent of Maggie Shipstead's Astonish Me and Julia Phillips's Disappearing Earth, Winterland tells the story of a previous era, shockingly pertinent today, shaped by glory and loss and finding light where none exists. In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya's only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp--and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother's confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone"--.
About the Author
Born in Brussels, Rae Meadows grew up in suburbs of Cleveland and San Diego before attending Stanford University as an Art History major. After years in advertising she wrote her first story, which led to local workshops and eventually the MFA program at the University of Utah. While in Salt Lake City, she answered phones at an escort service, the experience of which inspired her first novel.
Calling Out received the 2006 Utah Book Award for fiction and was named an Entertainment Weekly Must Read, a Book Sense Notable Novel, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and one of the Best Books of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune. Meadows was also named one of five Poets & Writers Debut Writers to Watch. Her second novel, No One Tells Everything, was named a Notable Novel by Poets & Writers and was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2008 Anne Powers Fiction Prize. Mercy Train (released in hardback as Mothers and Daughters) was chosen as a Target Emerging Authors selection and has also been published in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where it was a bestseller.
Her stories have appeared in various literary magazines including the Mississippi Review, Avery Anthology, and Washington Square, and her writing has also appeared online at Nerve, More Magazine, and NPR. She and Alex Darrow co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Calling Out, optioned by Sound Pictures.
Meadows's fourth novel, I Will Send Rain, is forthcoming, summer 2016, from Henry Holt. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY.
