Winter Stories - Ingvild H. Rishøi - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Ingvild H. Rishøi

TRANSLATOR: Diane Oatley

GENRE: Short Story Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: December 2, 2025

RATING: 3.2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of three stories set in the Scandinavian winter. Compelling but also frustrating. I liked the character-oriented writing, but the frequent flashbacks and overload of introspection affected my enjoyment. More suited to literary fiction readers.

This collection was first published in Norway under the title "Vinternoveller" in 2014. It was translated from Norwegian to English in 2019 by Diane Oatley. The same translation is now available under a new publisher in December 2025.

I had first experienced Norwegian author’s Ingvild H. Rishøi’s writing in the novella ‘Brightly Shining’, the first of her books to be translated to English.

While the ending left me a bit befuddled, I had fond memories of the rest of the work. This is why I decided to give this collection a go. A foolhardy decision, considering how short stories are even more dependent on a solid ending to be memorable.

The book contains three stories, two of which are almost novella length. The common thread across them is the narrative POV, each of which features a character who is at the end of a tether, so to speak. One features an impoverished mother trying her best to keep her little daughter fed and clothed, the second features an ex-convict father trying his best to make his house ready for his young son’s visit, and the third features a sibling trying her best to protect her younger siblings (and herself) from a troubling outcome. Each main character is from the poorer fringes of society, each has no idea how to handle their situation, and each puts on a brave face in front of their loved ones. Most importantly, each protagonist doesn’t run out of hope during their desperate circumstances for a long-enough time.

You might think that all this makes the stories repetitive, but the circumstances of each story are distinct enough to keep the proceedings feel different. Because of the action taken by the protagonists, it would be very easy to feel anger at them. Instead, all we feel is concern and sympathy, and all we can hope for is for someone to help them because we can see that they are struggling.

Thus, in terms of plot, the stories do pretty well. The wintry setting is used exceptionally in each tale. We can actually feel the chills and wintry winds as we walk with the characters on their myriad journeys.

Rishøi’s writing never goes over the top. She says somethings and leaves plenty of thing unsaid. Her writing also has a lyrical lilt to it. In this sense, she is a bit similar to Claire Keegan. However, unlike Keegan, Rishøi’s writing tends to go back and forth abruptly. Each of the stories is written in first person, and the central characters, because of their struggle, tend to go into random reminiscences and introspections right in between the active scene, making the narrative feel almost like stream-of-consciousness. This makes it difficult to follow the main plotline. (This issue might have been exacerbated by the poor formatting in my ARC. I am not sure if the final published version has section breaks to indicate the flashbacks, so do take this feedback with a pinch of salt.)

Given my experience with ‘Brightly Shining’, the endings had been my main concern in this collection. The first story has a wonderful ending, making it not just a good ‘wintry’ story but a good Christmassy story as well. The endings of the second and the third stories though could have worked better for me. The second ending was still decent, though it could have explained some things better. The third one was disappointing, with hardly anything sorted out and so many questions left dangling. To be clear, real life doesn’t always end with a settled situation, and the end point of these stories is reflective of the same: they stop at a point of transition, not at a point of resolution. If you are okay with unanswered queries and uncertain futures, you might like these endings better.

As always I rated the stories individually. Since there are only three stories, here’s a mini-review on each:

❄ We Can't Help Everybody: The perfect title for this touching story. A bit too much of back and forth in inner monologues, but overall, a beautiful read. The little girl made it even better. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

❄ The Right Thomas: This story had all the right ingredients but the random to and fro between reminiscences and present ongoings in addition to loads of ruminations made this tricky to follow. In my ARC, the change in scene/time wasn't indicated at all, making it trickier to figure out the flow. The rating is based on the emotional content of the story and not its writing structure. - ⭐⭐⭐

❄ Siblings: The story idea was captivating, but yet again, the abrupt back and forth didn't help my attention. I still kept reading hoping for a satisfactory resolution, but the ending left many things unanswered. Especially given that this story focussed on children, my heart wanted more closure, but there is too much left for reader interpretation. - ⭐⭐

Overall, this wintry triptych delivers exactly as the season it is dedicated to: it has the right juxtaposition of external chills and internal warmth, of heartbroken moments and hopeful dreams, of adults and children trying their best in a world full of challenges. If the chronology of the events in the story had been smoother, I would have certainly enjoyed this more. But as I said, the published book might have better formatting, so the stories might click better in that case.

Recommended to literary fiction readers interested in character-focussed wintry stories.

3.2 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic for providing the DRC of “Winter Stories” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.