Film4 has just acquired rights to Irish author Bernard MacLaverty’s latest novel Midwinter Break, and has set Brooklyn helmer John Crowley to direct, according to Deadline. MacLaverty is adapting the screenplay himself with Guy Heeley (Locke) financing under his Shoebox Films banner.

Midwinter Break will tell the story of retired couple Gerry and Stella Gilmore who travel from their home in Scotland for a weekend getaway in Amsterdam. They’re traveling to take a peaceful break, see the sights, and take stock of where their lives are at. What starts as a pleasant trip turns into a serious rift between the two as they discover how deep their differences, resentments, and bad memories go, threatening to tear them further apart. It will be an intimate look at both the tragedy and complexity of love.

Crowley is no stranger to serious novel adaptations, first breaking onto the scene with Boy A, based on the novel by Jonathan Trigell, and moving on from there to Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn. He is currently wrapping up on The Goldfinch, an adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel.