“Powerful and lyrical, passionate and graceful, The Ice King is magic.”
—Diane Donovan, Bookwatch

“Wintner offers remarkably strong characters and developments . . . filled with broad stretches of gourmet reading. The narrator’s sharp, laconic wit, the fine portraits of the skewed-edge in-laws, the fluid slaloming from past to present, and the occasional nugget of contemplative hindsight that rings like a solid brass bell are some of the author’s considerable strengths. Wintner has an obvious and large talent for storytelling and characterization.” —Rapport Magazine on The Ice King

“Fighting metaphors sweep through The Ice King on a compellingly angry tone. Yet there is pathos in the narrator’s observation: ‘People who lose their parents early, especially males from the hell-bent-for-leather school who lose a father in the crux of puberty, on the threshold of immortality, can imagine a lingering spirit more naturally. And maybe a parent checking out too soon does linger, until the kid gets old enough to know the odds.’
Wintner’s strength as a novelist rests in his skill at drawing you into tight-knit family groups where the reader feels like a fly on the wall.” —Peter Robinson, The Commuter Times, San Francisco

“Wintner fleshes out the tale with humor, warmth and insight. We have one warning: Don’t read The Ice King in a hushed library—we tried, until waves of laughter rolled up and exploded—very unpopular in a library. Beneath the hilarity, Wintner serves the message: ‘Maybe success hinges on magic, and childhood is the best time to store it up.’” —Sara Sanderson, The Indianapolis News