Winter Journey is something like the first trip to Italy that lies at its center: you may think you know the language, and you certainly know that many, many others have made the trip before, but the experience itself is utterly fresh, a little disturbing, and full of unexpected delights. That T. Alan Broughton can handle the well-worn theme of an adolescent's coming of age with such invention is impressive, especially since Winter Journey echoes the concerns of his successful first novel, A Family Gathering….

Winter Journey is written in an easy, graceful prose through which the brilliant dialogue filters like sunlight. While readers may find it a little hard to believe that an education as liberal as Carey's was possible in the early fifties, in which the story is set, the novel's breadth of feeling and evocation of place make it a joy to read.

"Life & Letters...