Winter under water, or, Conversation with the elements - James Hopkin

Is it possible to fully comprehend a person when you don't grasp the intricacies of their culture, when you don't share a homeland or a voice, when you have different definitions of the past and conflicting commitments in the present? What future is there for love when you find yourself the other side of language -- a place where everything feels slowed down, reduced to gestures, as if under water?

When Joseph meets Marta, who has come to the UK to research the forgotten histories of remarkable women from across Europe, he is captivated, and Marta feels the same; when she returns to her previous life, their relationship continues through letters and phone calls. Then Joseph decides to visit Marta in her native Poland. His subsequent journey, across a continent, through the cold and dark of an unfamiliar country, proves as much a search for understanding -- of a person, a place, a language -- as it does a struggle against isolation.

Interlinking Joseph's often strange experiences with Marta's letters to him, Winter Under Water is a book of Europe, of myriad identities, of love and language. It is also, ultimately, a book that suggests you only truly know a person or a place when you can sit in silence and not feel compelled to break it -- in any language.