Favorite Book Cover of the Week – Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

Winter's Tale is a book that is very near and dear to my heart. It’s a fantastical book about true love, time travel, and old New York. Ran introduced this book to me when we first started dating in 2005. I loved it so much that I made an oil painting of one of my favorite scenes—the night when Peter Lake and Beverly Penn meet for the first time. Beverly is asleep on the roof of her family mansion in the Hudson River Valley. Her family has left the house for the holidays and she has stayed behind to rest. She is dying of consumption and she needs to stay out in the cold to keep her fever down. Thinking that no one is home, Peter Lake breaks into the first floor as he attempts to rob the house. My painting shows that moment, just before the love story begins—the windows lit with candles where Peter and Beverly begin their journey to find each other. A side note about the inspiration for the building - I based the exterior on The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

My favorite part of the book’s appearance is the beautiful foil stamp on the case spine and cover. It’s always fun to find a hidden treasure beneath the dust jacket. Take a look at your hardcover books and see what you find!