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On a nine-day winter break in Tenerife, where nothing is quite good enough, Miki Lentin tries in vain to ask his ailing, elderly Irish Jewish father questions about their past before it’s too late. The absurdity and hilarity of family holidays in the sun are brought to life in this sharp and fiercely honest novel that crosses borders from the narrator’s home in Dublin to his grandmother’s apartment in Israel, carrying the reader on a tide of childhood pain, a search for identity, history, and growth.

Independent publisher, Afsana Press announces the publication in paperback of Miki Lentin’s debut novel, WINTER SUN on 13 March 2024. A finalist in the Irish Novel Fair 2020, WINTER SUN is a captivating story of a son’s frustrating relationship with his father that comes to a head during a winter break in Tenerife.

Centred in the Hotel Optimist, amidst other hotel guests and a friendship made with the holiday rep, we enter the son’s quest to better connect and understand his father. Over nine days, this warm and honest novel explores what it is to love a difficult and complicated father with an honesty and humanity that includes many hilarious moments.

Described as a ‘page-turner’ by award-winning Irish author Niamh Boyce and ‘beautifully achieved’ by Irish author and film writer Gerry Stembridge, there is a lightness of touch in this profound book about a son’s love for his father and his desire to understand him, and to want that love and respect returned.

“Winter Sun is a meticulous and vivid chronicle of a son’s week in Tenerife with his aging father. Written from the heart, with skill and honesty, this is a warm, highly intelligent exploration of what it is to love a difficult and complicated father. Just beautiful, I was thoroughly moved by Winter Sun.” Niamh Boyce, author of The Herbalist and Her Kind.

“I enjoyed this very much. By making his story very specifically Jewish/Irish, Lentin actually releases its universal quality. Everything about the characters and their relationship feels recognisable and true for sons and fathers everywhere. There will be no final answers. Beautifully achieved.” Gerry Stembridge, author of The Effect of Her.

“…a captivating debut novel exploring father and son relationships, love, loss, hope, and the human condition during a week the writer spends with his aging father. An emotionally engaging story that is definitely worth checking out.” Nizan Weisman, author of Rosemary Woods and A Place.

Commented on the release of his debut novel, author Miki Lentin said that WINTER SUN has been a “labour of love”.

“I wrote it during my MA in creative writing, put it aside for a couple of years, then redrafted it in 2023. I’m thrilled that I have found a home for it through Afsana Press,” said Lentin.

Miki related, “Writing Winter Sun took me to places I often didn’t want to go, but I wanted to show that we don’t always really know our parents and that sometimes, despite our best efforts, they remain hidden from us. But writing WINTER SUN as autofiction gave me the freedom to write a story that I hope has resonance for readers out there. My father died in 2014, so it’s perhaps fitting that WINTER SUN will be published in 2024, ten years after his death. I hope he will have been proud!”

Co-publisher and editor at Afsana Press, Goran Baba Ali said, “I was waiting for this book for a long time. From the start of our publishing venture, I was hoping that Miki one day will submit his novel to us. And when the final draft of his manuscript came in, I couldn’t put it down. I’m so looking forward to reading it again, in print.”

Abba put his hand over my shoulders and held on to me as we sat on metal seats, the windows open, the sultry evening air rushing onto our faces and peeling shoulders, the warmth of his body against mine. It was the happiest I ever was with him.