are there any agnostics/atheists who like this book?

Sure. Not everybody requires that their beliefs or worldviews are validated in all of the books, films, or music that they love.

You move like a pregnant yak.

I did, immensely. I don't remember the last 100 pages of the book very well, but I never really considered the book's metaphysics to be in direct and unyielding contradiction to my notions on a deity. Even if I don't seriously subscribe to the sort of order found in the book (who knows, though? I'm not all knowing) a well written novel inherently grants you access to a universe with other worlds in which you can adapt as a reader.

Even books with religious undertones I can read with no issue - as it becomes one of the realities of a fictional world much in the same way as any fantasy novel.

Plus, the kid in me who is still fascinated by enigmatic mathematical and natural patterns, synchronicity, and order ate up Winter's Tale.


The-Red-Veggie-Head

I read it, I guess, thirty years ago. Over the course of several weeks in the midst of a very snowy winter. I had an hour's bus ride every Saturday morning before the sun came up, and I spent that hour reading about Peter Lake and his horse while flurries of thick, white snowflakes came out of the dark and hit the bus window. Thirty years later, and well into a new century, it remains a perfect memory of a perfect moment.

Just saying.

As an agnostic, I've never felt uncomfortable with any of the novel's themes. It's a fantasy, like The Hobbit, or LOTR. You suspend judgement and belief and simply slip into the book like a warm bath.

But this is a movie board. I didn't know that a film was being made, and when I first saw the commercials a couple of weeks ago, I was amazed and delighted. Now I'm pretty sure that I'm not going anywhere near the film.

Maybe A Winter's Tale is like Dune and At the Mountains of Madness - an exquisite, albeit perhaps un-filmable story.

I'm non-religious (not quite agnostic), but I don't have a problem with religious stories. Most of these stories try to touch on things that are universal to us, although they might touch on them in a specific way that not everyone quite gets. The more universal stories, even with a religious filter, as usually pretty universal imho.
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I'm an antitheist and this book is one of my favorites.

my atheist friend enjoyed the movie, but hasnt read the book.

"And once you had love, you simply can't settle for less." -SG&TNG
WAA #57, t #20

I'm an atheist. Winter's Tale is one of the best books I've read (in my top 5) - the perfect mix of the historical with magical realism. There's no way a two-hour film could come close to capturing it, and by the looks of things, Akiva Goldman has failed spectacularly in his attempt.

Actually, I don't understand the question - why would an atheist or agnostic be predisposed not to like the book?

Yes, why not? A fantasy novel is a fantasy novel. Unlike religion, it's open about being fiction and isn't trying to peddle its fantasy as true in a real-world sense.

Seingner Conrat, tot per vostr'amor chan
http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/knightlife