Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

There are seasons in a life when the world goes quiet and we are forced — or invited — to stop. Katherine May’s Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is a luminous, deeply humane exploration of what it means to enter those fallow periods with open eyes, and to discover in them an unexpected source of renewal.

When May’s husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own health forced her to leave her job, she found herself in a winter she hadn’t chosen. Rather than resist it, she leaned in — swimming in icy waters, celebrating solstice, studying the dormouse in hibernation, and drawing on the wisdom of C.S. Lewis, Sylvia Plath, and the ancient rhythms of the natural world. What she found was not defeat but transformation: a philosophy of rest as an active, courageous, and ultimately life-giving practice.

For readers drawn to contemplative nonfiction, Wintering speaks to anyone who has ever felt undone by circumstances beyond their control — for those navigating illness, grief, burnout, or loss, for seekers who find meaning in nature and the turning of seasons, and for anyone ready to stop measuring life in linear terms and begin moving with its cycles instead.

Explore more contemplative reading: Turn to Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer for a meditation on retreat and the wisdom of stillness, or Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair by Christian Wiman for an honest reckoning with darkness and what endures.

What You’ll Discover

• A philosophy of rest and retreat drawn from literature, mythology, and the natural world
• Lessons from C.S. Lewis, Sylvia Plath, solstice traditions, and arctic seas
• May’s own unflinching account of navigating illness, family crisis, and professional loss
• How to embrace life’s fallow periods rather than endure them
• A secular mystic’s guide to the cyclical, seasonal nature of a well-lived life

Katherine May is a New York Times bestselling author and the writer behind Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age. A self-described secular mystic, she writes at the intersection of nature, psychology, and the interior life, and has been praised by Krista Tippett, Elizabeth Gilbert, and the Wall Street Journal for her clear-eyed, steady, and deeply human voice.

Perfect for: Readers navigating illness, grief, burnout, or loss, those drawn to nature writing and seasonal wisdom, fans of Elizabeth Gilbert or Krista Tippett’s On Being, seekers exploring rest as a spiritual practice, readers of contemplative and personal narrative nonfiction, those interested in cyclical living and slow seasons, practitioners of mindfulness or intentional living, and anyone ready to find grace in letting go.

Quality hardcover edition | ISBN 9780593189481. Katherine May’s Wintering — a New York Times bestseller and a gentle, courageous invitation to rest, retreat, and begin again.