Jean-Claude Mourlevat - Winter's End

He dropped Helen at her home in the middle of the night. They parted, promising to see each other again from time to time and talk about Paula. Helen slipped quietly into her sleeping house, but as she opened her bedroom door, another opened at the end of the corridor, and her daughter came out.

“Can’t you sleep, darling?”

The little girl shook her head. She was twisting the front of her nightdress and wasn’t far from tears. “I had a bad dream, Mama, and then you weren’t there.”

Helen took her in her arms, put her back to bed, and sat beside her to reassure her. She stroked her daughter’s hair and talked to her quietly.

And it seemed to her that the love she had received from Paula flowed into her caressing hands and her voice, and she in turn was passing it on, a love as powerful as the river.

“I’m back now, ” she said. “Go to sleep, my beauty, go to sleep. Everything’s all right.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank several people who have accompanied me through the writing of this novel: Thierry Laroche of Gallimard Jeunesse, for his helpful and always friendly comments; Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod of Gallimard Jeunesse, who reassured me about the darker side of the story; Dr. Patrick Carrère for his advice on medical subjects; Christopher Murray, musician, for his equally valuable help with musical matters; Rachel and my children, Emma and Colin, who all three give me the inestimable gift, constantly renewed, of being there for me.

And finally I would like to express my great gratitude to the memory of Kathleen Ferrier, the British contralto, whose voice and whose story both moved me deeply and have gone into this story. But for her, this novel would not have been written.

JEAN-CLAUDE MOURLEVATwas born in Ambert, France, in 1952 and started his literary career in the theater. Today he is considered one of the major children’s fiction authors in France, where he has been awarded many literary prizes and his stories have become classics. Winter’s End is his first novel for young adults.