Miki Lentin took up writing while travelling the world with his family a few years ago. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2020 and was a finalist in the 2020 Irish Novel Fair. He has been placed highly in competitions including Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize 2020 and 2022, Brick Lane Bookshop New Short Stories 2022 and Leicester Writes, and published in Litro, MIR and other publications. His collection of short stories Inner Core, described as “…consistently enthralling…funny, moving and disturbing in equal measure,” was published by Afsana Press in 2022. For more information, visit: www.mikilentin.net/my-writing

WINTER SUN: A spiky father-son relationship is tested to its limits on their last holiday together.

Press Release, 12 February 2024

A nine-day winter break in Tenerife. Nothing is quite good enough. A son 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, carrying the reader on a tide of childhood pain, a search for identity, and growth.

“…a page turner!”

Niamh Boyce, author of The Herbalist and Her Kind

On sale – 13 March 2024

Now available for pre-order

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, ‘Bittersweet, funny and tender’ by Viv Groskop 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.

“Bittersweet, funny and tender, Winter Sun is about the mysterious relationship between parent and adult child, the fragility of the ageing body, the strangeness of family holidays and the comforts of alcohol and literature. You can’t help falling in love with Miki and Abba, willing them on to find a common language — and ideally a whiskey they can both agree on.” Viv Groskop, author of The Anna Karenina Fix

“A gentle, finely crafted novel with a brilliantly realised father-son relationship, and a nuanced, beautifully written observation of old age. It’s fitting our narrator reads Saul Bellow in this book, because for me, Lentin’s achievement in ‘Winter Sun’ sits alongside Bellow’s in ‘Seize the Day’; they both create such a memorable and vivid rendering of a father-son relationship in adulthood.” Kevin Curran, author of Youth, Citizens and Beatsploitation.

“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.

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

“I wrote WINTER SUN 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.

He continued, “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 would have been proud!”

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.

Goran Baba Ali, publisher of Afsana press said, “I’m delighted that we have acquired WINTER SUN. This is a heartwarming book that explores parental and childhood son as well as identity and belonging. We can’t wait to see it in our readers’ hands alongside our other publications.”

ENDS