Reed Karaim

The story of an unlikely and transformative connection forged between a young journalist and a woman whose past holds a terrible secret. A young man, Eric, drops out of college and lucks into a job with a smalltown newspaper where he meets Anna, a few years older than him. Her story will both haunt and inspire him for the rest of his life. The Winter in Anna unfolds around a romance that almost was and a meditation on what constitutes a life well-lived. Set in a remote North Dakota community in the last days before the Internet, the story centers on this relationship. It is narrated by Eric as he looks back on their days together and struggles to reconcile his memories with what he has since learned about Anna. Opening with a suicide and ending at a wedding, The Winter in Anna is filled with moments of tenderness, even as it slowly reveals an unbearable tragedy at the heart of a quietly defiant life.