Winterland

Perfection has a cost . . . With transporting prose and meticulous detail, set in an era that remains shockingly relevant today, Winterland tells a story of glory, loss, hope, and determination, and of finding light where none exists.

Soviet Union, 1973: There is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen for the famed USSR gymnastics program. When eight-year-old Anya is selected, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago, her mother disappeared without a trace, leaving Anya’s father devastated and their lives dark and quiet in the bitter cold of Siberia. Anya’s only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years imprisoned in a Gulag camp—and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother’s confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance.

As Anya rises through the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls fall from grace, she soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone and so much to lose.

This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Henry Holt.

Book club questions for Winterland by Rae Meadows

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Winterland, while a fi ctional story, has characters based on real gymnasts who competed in the 1980s Olympics. How does your previous knowledge or lack thereof of the history behind the Moscow Olympics inform your reading experience?

Vera wonders what Anya would have been like if Katerina had lived. Do you think Anya would have chosen gymnastics over dance if her mother had been around?

Why do you think Katerina’s faith in communism waned while Yuri’s persisted? Why do you think Vera stayed after being released from the gulag? Is there an argument to be made that life outside the gulag and inside were not that diff erent?

The United States, among 65 other nations, boyco ed the 1980s Moscow Olympics to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. What would be diff erent if Winterland was set today, leading up to the 2024 Olympics?

Anya’s end to gymnastics was a slow burn rather than an abrupt ending, like in the case of Elena. Do you feel like it was a satisfying end for her? Do you think it’s possible to train your whole life for something (gymnastics, dance) yet still retain your initial love for it?

Why do you think Katerina turned around at the offi ce and embarked on that fateful walk? Do you think her pregnancy made her more desperate to find a way out? Or surer that she needed to do whatever it took to stay with her family?

What did you think of Anya and Yuri’s eventually settling in America?

The town that Yuri, Anya and Vera live in is one of the most polluted cities in the world – why do you think the author chose to set the novel here?

Why do you think Boris, the guard, saved Vera that day at the camps? Do you think he was a good person or a bad person? Why?

Anya and Sveta dreamed of making the program and ge ing out one day to the United States. What do you think would have happened if the roles were reversed and Sveta made it in while Anya was cut?

The gymnastics world today has seen many allegations of sexual assault and inappropriate behavior from doctors or coaches to the young women. We see that happen with Karolina and her coach early on in the book as well. Do you feel like there has been progress in changing this dynamic almost fi ve decades later? What still needs to change? Did you have any feeling of empathy for Anya’s coach at the end? Why or why not?

Katerina kept a banned copy of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva. Years later, Anya fi nds the book and uses the poems she memorized to share her love for Elena. Do you think Tsvetaeva’s words would have has such a strong impact on Anya if they weren’t banned? How does the use of a banned book in the 1970s USSR relate to our current climate?

At one point Anya says to Elena, “We were the bulls.” What do you make of that?

What do you make of the very ending, and Anya doing gymnastics on the beach?

Winterland Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Winterland discussion questions

"With meticulous precision and smart, poetic prose, Meadows vaults us into the chilling and eerily relevant world of Soviet-era gymnastics. Get ready to fall in love with eight-year-old Anya, who offers us a heart-wrenching view of what it means to live, love and compete in a sport where one wrong move or the whisper of dissent can ruin you. This book is full of heart."
—Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones

"[Rae Meadows's] gemlike novel... rests—panting, gasping, breathing—in the span between Anya’s tiny but powerful shoulders. With every cracking bone and snapped ligament, we long for Anya’s success even as it imperils her. We long for her rescue even as we both know that success means buying only a little more time before the end."
–Megan Abbott, The New York Times