Review of the Day: Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

King’s book is a collection of ten short stories. Personally, I liked the book, but I found the stories a little sterile; they were well written, but I did not feel an emotional connection to the characters most of the time.

I find it an impossible task to describe and make comments on ten stories. Instead, let me focus on the final story, “The Man at the Door.” This is a story of a stay at home mother who is also a writer who finds a man at her door who claims to know her husband and wants to have a detailed conversation about her latest manuscript. Since no one other than the woman (the characters are not named) has seen the story, it becomes obvious that this is an imaginary conversation. And the man has a rather negative and misogynistic opinion of the manuscript.

Here are some passages from the story I liked:

“Tolstoy had thirteen children. And most of them were born while he was writing War and Peace. I’m not sure he even knew any of their names. That’s the way it has to be done. You’ve got to forget your children’s names” (p. 224).

“I have never understood why a person who is not a genius bothers with art. What’s the point? You’ll never have the satisfaction of having created something indispensable. You’ve got your little scenes, your pretty images, but that desperate exhilaration of blowing past all the fixed boundaries of art, of life—that will forever elude you” (p. 229).

She dragged the man from where he’d fallen … There was no mound when she’d finished; every scoop of dirt had fit perfectly back in.  She replaced the sod she’d carefully cut out and went inside. According to the clock on the stove, her work had taken forty-nine minutes. The book was sprawled on the floor where he had flung it. She brought it over to the couch, tossed off the diaper, and lay lengthwise, on her stomach. She turned to the last chapter. The red cross-outs had faded, and it was, she could easily see now, a fine ending (p. 230).

kindle and Audible audiobook. 240 pgs. 23 February 2026.