The novel "The Long Winter," like all books in the autobiographical series by American author Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a life lesson: never give up, never lose heart, always believe and hope!
The main character, Laura, is fourteen. Her large family is put to the test once again. Cold and hunger are their primary enemies. Furthermore, a significant sum of money is needed so that Mary, Laura's older sister, can attend a college for the blind. Laura takes a job to help her sister. She has to do work she dislikes—sewing—but, like all the Ingallses, she does not complain; she simply does what she believes is her duty.
An impressive part of the book is dedicated to young and desperate Almanzo Wilder (Laura Ingalls's future husband), who, risking his life in freezing temperatures and blizzards, travels with a companion through deep, trackless snow to fetch provisions; he secures several bags of wheat, thereby saving Laura's family and their neighbors from certain death.
Love and care for one another help the family overcome all difficulties. And, of course, there is Pa, Charles, a man of extraordinary resilience and strength of spirit, who would turn the world upside down for the happiness of his beloved wife and daughters.
Thanks to the authentic depiction of daily life—the smell of coffee, pumpkin pie, milk frozen solid in a bucket, Christmas presents that only reached the Ingallses in May—the family's life as pioneers is moving and inspires the reader to compare their own adolescent coming-of-age with Laura's.
Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Illustrations: Garth Williams
Translation: Mary Baker, Nikolai Gol
Pages: 296 (offset paper). Hardcover
Dimensions: 210×141×15 mm
