The Heart Of Winter by Jonathan Evison

 

This is the story of a long marriage.  They shouldn't have lasted as they are so different.  Abe is grounded, practical and logical.  He ends up selling insurance and has his own agency.  Ruth is artistic and creative and longs for culture.  They have almost nothing in common but we pick up the story when they have been married for over seventy years.  They have raised four children and even been through the absolute worst thing, the loss of a child.  

Abe has adored Ruth from the start.  He ends up on an island in Washington because there he can give Ruth a farm where she can garden and raise the children.  Over the years, they ebb and flow, sometimes at a distance when Ruth starts to find Abe boring, closer when they need to handle a crisis.

The story picks up when Ruth is diagnosed with cancer.  The grown children insist that Abe is too old to take care of Ruth after extensive surgery, chemo and radiation but he is just as insistent that he can and Ruth wants his comfort and her own home.  They have always thought Abe would go first, but is that true?

Jonathan Evison is an American author who lives in Washington like Abe and Ruth.  I could really relate to this novel as my husband and I have married for fifty-two years now.  Evison gets the reality of a day to day relationship and how couples can grow closer as they age and how successful marriages adapt to a crisis that every marriage eventually faces.  I loved the way Abe adored Ruth from start to finish.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.