Julius Winsome is a rare and unique breed of character. He lives in a cabin in the northern woods of Maine. Julius lives a very simple, yet fulfilled life, doing general gardening work in the summer months and hibernating during the bleak and harsh winters.

He learned this solitary existence from birth, as he was raised by his father and his grandfather, both World War veterans and it was in this cabin that Julius grew up. His mother died giving birth to him.

Julies also adopted a passion for reading from his father, and upon his death, the cabin remained filled with 3,256 books, wall to wall surrounding the cabin, all leather-bound and alphabetically ordered. Julius cherished his books and the memories bound in them, but his real love and sole companion was Hobbes, his dog.

One day while Julius was reading and going about his daily winter routine in November, getting logs for his fire, making tea and reading Russian stories, he began to notice no sign of Hobbes but continued his reading with a slight unease. It was a very cold winter.

When Hobbes did not return, Julius went in search of his friend. He found Hobbes dying in the snow. He found a gunshot wound and immediately suspected that the dog had been shot at close range. Peculiar. But he drove to the vets and sadly as he held Hobbes close to him, he died in his arms.

The return journey home with his breathless, lifeless, dead Hobbes was heart-wrenching for Julius as was his burial as he laid him to rest in the spot where he had found him, not far from the cabin. A place that he would have to pass daily.

The story evolves and takes us upon a journey not only of the deep love and grief Julius had for Hobbes. This loss and grief turns into a tale of suspicion and deep revenge as he is now sure the death of Hobbes was not an accident. Julius, once a placid, soft natured man, a man of integrity and of an intellectual nature now goes in search of the killer or killers only to discover how easily violence overwhelms his life.

Though at times it is difficult to justify his actions, the author so cleverly takes you into the mind of Julius so that one can identify somewhere in their soul with his anguish and pain and extend a heartfelt compassion as to what motivated this deep revenge that took over his life and sadly had a serious effect on the lives of others.

The content of this story is just as endearing as the way it is written. You are magnetically absorbed with every page turned. The use of his language is like that of poetic prose.

Gerard Donovan has mastered the gift to use the harsh weather conditions, metaphorically, not only to describe the severe endurance of this season in Northern Maine but it depicts to his readers the brutality and rawness of loneliness.

Julies had a brief love encounter with a woman named Claire, who inspired him to find a dog for company. For this he was forever grateful as the joy Hobbes brought to him was endless.

The author keeps us very much in touch with Julius’s insight as to how the mind of a dog works. The end has an interesting twist and ties in very strongly with events that took place in his earlier life and the motives behind the dog killer’s revenge.

Julius is a beautiful man with a strong connection with nature and his inner emotions. Through the loss of Hobbes, these are accentuated and stripped to a raw and relentless sadness until his revenge is complete. It is such a memorable tale, one which lasts with you long after you have read it.

This book not only takes you on an emotional journey but the magnificent way in which the author uses such majestic imagery to describe the weather is remarkable. You may need a wool blanket close by as well as a box of tissues. I miss Julius Winsome like a friend, a true ascetic aesthetic.