hro reviewed on
Helpful Score: 8
It is the 1920s, and Jack and Mabel have moved to Alaska to homestead and to escape the shame and sadness of being unable to bear children. And then one winter they meet Faina, a young girl who seems to have materialized from the snow and who lives in the forbidding Alaskan wilderness. The mysterious Faina alters the hearts and lives of Jack and Mabel in ways that echo a Russian fable which Mabel recalls from her youth.
Gorgeously written and richly atmospheric, The Snow Child enthralled me. The characterizations are superb, the storytelling is utterly compelling, and the homesteading lifestyle and Alaskan landscape are vividly conveyed. The narrative weaves together strands of harsh reality and enchanting mysticism into a mosaic of wonderment. The lines dividing reality from fantasy are indistinct and the reader is swept into a mesmerizing story of hope and heartbreak.
One of the blurbs on the cover states, If Willa Cather and Gabriel Garcia Marquez had collaborated on a book, The Snow Child would be it. That accurately conveys all that is wonderful about this novel. The Snow Child is complete perfection and is at the top of the list of favorite books I have read this year.
Gorgeously written and richly atmospheric, The Snow Child enthralled me. The characterizations are superb, the storytelling is utterly compelling, and the homesteading lifestyle and Alaskan landscape are vividly conveyed. The narrative weaves together strands of harsh reality and enchanting mysticism into a mosaic of wonderment. The lines dividing reality from fantasy are indistinct and the reader is swept into a mesmerizing story of hope and heartbreak.
One of the blurbs on the cover states, If Willa Cather and Gabriel Garcia Marquez had collaborated on a book, The Snow Child would be it. That accurately conveys all that is wonderful about this novel. The Snow Child is complete perfection and is at the top of the list of favorite books I have read this year.
