Well, well, well, would you look at that? Seems like winter may finally be coming after all. The Winds of Winter now has an arrival date, and while it may not be tomorrow, it is pretty soon if George R.R. Martin’s Spanish publisher is to be believed.

In a roughly translated interview between Alejo Cuervo of Gigamesh Editions with morning Catalan radio station RAC1, the editor confirmed that the English edition of Martin’s sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series would make its debut in 2016. We’ve borrowed the rough translation from the folks over at The Winds of Winter because, well, Google Translate is a nightmare:

Radio DJ:  The sixth book will be…?

Cuervo:  It is expected next year.

Radio DJ:  In English, but in Spanish when will it be [available]?

Cuervo:  We have been promised the manuscript in advance of the release in English which we will translate, [so] there won’t be a big difference [in release dates].*

Radio DJ:  But you are equally sure it will be next year?

Cuervo:  Well, let’s see, confident…but a meteor could fall

Now, this is exciting for two reasons. It means our wait time is way less than it could be, and it falls in line with what Martin had long posited to be his hope for the novel: that it would be released prior to the HBO series’ sixth season. With Game of Thrones typically seeing an April premiere date, that gives Martin a decent amount of wiggle room on the publication front. Furthermore, it’ll appease all those book-reader fans who have long been anxious about the probability of living in a world wherein we experience David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ version of Martin’s story before the original text itself.

With the amount of available chapters out there, we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the book out in January or February. But please take all of this with a The Mountain-sized grain of salt and keep your fingers crossed, because the man has been known to blow past deadlines before. Or, y’know, just up and start something entirely new:

The night truly is dark and full of the terror of possibility.

Are you looking forward to The Winds of Winter‘s release? Let’s hear it in the comments.

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Alicia Lutes is the Associate Editor of The Nerdist. Fall down the speculatory ASOIAF rabbit hole with her on Twitter (@alicialutes)!

HT: The Winds of Winter
Image Credit: DaniNaimare via deviantART