New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake--orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks hte house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beseiged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

马克·哈普林（Mark Helprin），1947年生于纽约曼哈顿，美国著名小说家、记者、时事评论员。他是电影人和百老汇演员之子，《纽约客》二十年的老作者，习惯在自己弗吉尼亚州祖传的五十六英亩农场里写作。马克·哈普林已经出版了十四部作品，其中奇幻小说《冬日传奇》是他最著名的作品。这部作品萌芽于四十年前，当时的纽约如此寒冷，以至于有人说新的冰河期要来了。为了写这本书，一两年之内，马克·哈普林每天穿过纽约曼哈顿，有时一天就要走二十英里。《冬日传奇》不是用笔写成的，而是用一双厚底鞋写成的，里面包涵了马克·哈普林所看到、听到、感觉到的一切，《纽约时报书评》称之为“绝对出色的新作品”。