Author: Eowyn Ivey
ISBN: 978-0-7553-8052-7
Wildly captivating and breathtakingly haunting the debut novel of Eowyn Ivey will hold your imagination in thrall with the perfect symmetry drawn between the Russian fairy tale that inspired the story and Ivey’s own Snow Child.
The book is bound in a blue cover, as was the book of Mabel’s childhood, and printed with a snowy white silhouette reminiscent of books that I can imagine being printed early last century – when this book was set.
Set alongside the Wolverine River, Alaska in 1920 when the area was untamed wilderness and the settlers were fighting nature every season to survive. A time when every battle was hard won and every crop was hard fought. The scenery is stark and vivid with much of the story being told throughout the winter months. You can just picture the pristine snow blanketing the forest, and feel the arctic wind blowing through the gaps in the cabin walls.
Jack and Mabel are an older couple who move to Alaska to find a little peace and quiet, a fresh start in a new life that is all about the two of them. Somewhere quiet where there are no babies crying and children playing to haunt Mabel and cut to the heart of her grief for the baby she lost, away from the family who whisper and judge her for the lack of children.
Panning out over a decade and a half this is a story that builds slowly, like the success of a new farm, the growth of a friendship, and the bond of a family that you choose.
Arriving in Alaska Mabel wants solitude and silence in a world built for two; no neighbours, no family, no friends – just Jack and Mabel in partnership against the harsh climate of the Alaskan wilderness so when Jack embarks on a friendship with the Benson’s Mabel is a little frosty, but soon blossoms alongside her friendship with Esther.
There is an ever widening distance between the couple that Mabel had hoped to diminish with their move, and in all her imaginings things didn’t quite turn out the way she had thought. The joint venture of them working together panned out a little differently and sees the chasm taking them further apart, both of them trapped in their own head and heart unable to express themselves.
The magical first snow of winter brings with it a lighter mood that sees the 50-something Jack and Mabel making a snowman in their yard, a child sized snowman with a beautiful face etched with love, dressed in hand knitted scarf and mittens.
The morning light brings the discovery of the snow child missing, and child sized footprints leading away from the scene….
Is this a case of Cabin Fever as Esther suggests? Is there a logical explanation? Or is it really the magical transformation of snow child to real child of the snow as captured in the fairy tale of Mabel’s childhood?
This is a question that is never completely answered, never settled without a doubt, and remains shrouded in a little magic, a little mystery right up to the closing lines.
Regardless of the answer there is no denying that the entrance of Faina into the lives of Jack and Mabel is a turning point in so many aspects of their life. The beginning of a new chapter that brings heightened awareness, heightened emotion and heightened clarity.
A novel filled with emotional highs and lows, of going to the farthest reaches of civilisation to really get to know yourself, of opening yourself to the possibilities around you.
Ivey captured my heart and my imagination with the mystery surrounding the Alaskan homestead, the magic inherent in every page. A beautiful story that weaves the threads of the original fairy tale through the novel, comparing the fairy tale to what is unfolding before them. And for those who are intrigued by the fairy tale but never come across it there is a telling of the original story in the back of the book.
40 members of our Beauty Chick Chat panel have been reading The Snow Child, find out what they thought below…
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I thought this book was amazing! It really took me on a beautiful journey to Alaska. I found myself totally enthralled in the book and found it hard to put down. The story was beautifully told and captured every little detail that you could think of to describe perfectly the surroundings.
I felt for the characters and their struggles and could relate to Jack and Mabel and their struggle to have their own children, it really struck a chord with me.
Thank you so much for allowing me to read this debut novel by Eowyn Ivey, I will certainly keep an eye wide open for any of her work in the future! I feel blessed to have read it and that it truly touched my heart.
This book was beautiful and it really pulled at my heartstrings. Just looking at the front cover and spine with the stunning snowflakes and simple drawing told me that I was going to be in for something special. Once I started reading I found The Snow Child really difficult to put down, so that I could get on with the rest of my life!
The book was written in a way that I had no difficulties at all putting myself in Mabel’s shoes. I could feel every emotion that she was feeling and so I was taken on a ride of high’s and low’s. I felt the Loneliness , the loss, the happiness and the wonder. I laughed and cried along with Mabel and Jack. The character of Esther was gorgeous. She helped Mabel to get back on her own feet and look at the world in a different way. And Faina, well right from the beginning you could tell she was special. By the end of the book I felt as if I’d woken from a really good dream and I wondered whether Faina was really real, or just a figment of their imagination from a beautiful dream.
Thank you so much for letting me review this special book >;o)
The Snow Child is a book that will happily have pride of place on my book case with my other ‘must read’ novels that have been read, reread dozens of times.
Despite the old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, it’s hard not to with The Snow Child. This beautifully presented hard cover novel does not disappoint inside or out.
Eowyn Ivey has embraced the themes of love, loss, longing, hope, despair and friendship to create a magical materpiece which vividly transforms the reader to 1920s Alaska. Quite simply I could not put this book down. It presented beautifully the complexities of relationships in everyday life and I was left wanting more.
I would class The Snow Child as a classic. A simple tale which is in no ways simply told, and I will be recommending this book wholeheartedly to those I love and those whom love a good read. I myself will be keenly awaiting Ivey’s next novel!
Thank you for the oppoprtunity to preview this exquisite novel.
I was enthralled by the second page. I love to read, but it isn’t often that I am absorbed into a book so quickly! I was pulled into the world of Jack and Mabel and their Alaskan adventure on their homestead and really never wanted to escape although the twists and turns made me wonder if I could go on, just as Jack and Mabel wondered the same thing.
Everything was described so clearly it was like watching a movie, and sometimes the path turned in a direction that you just did not expect – rarely did it ever become predictable!
This was a beautiful novel, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to read and review it. I will no doubt be reading it again and again and am looking forward to sharing it with my friends (if I can part with it!!)
Thanks to Beauty & Lace for giving me the opportunity to review The Snow Child. As others have mentioned, the actual book is a delight: the silver embossing on the navy cover is quite charming and gives a little hint as to what lies between the covers. I found it was very tactile and somehow, quite reassuring to hold.
Each character in the book is wonderfully developed and by the end I found myself well and truly enamoured by all of them; but I really had a soft spot for Mabel. I felt as if I lived through every winter with her; I experienced her heart ache and revelled in her joy.
The language used by Ivey is at once simple but also very evocative. At the beginning of the book Jack & Mabel find Alaska quite a cruel and foreboding place; with horrendous weather, wild animals and harsh terrain; and their mood and the interactions between them is similarly effected. As time progresses however, I think they see their environment and the world they have created to be a thing of wonder and beauty. This is of course, highly influenced by the appearance of “The Snow Child” Faina into their world.
Faina is a mystery, an enigma. Are we dealing with reality or fantasy here? Is she some magical being or drawn of flesh and blood, just as Jack and Mabel? This is one of the elements in the book that makes it so readable; we must find out – at times I found myself reading with real intensity and not really aware of what was happening around me. I simply had to get to the end and was incredibly interested to see how the book would end.
Overall this was an enjoyable book and I will happily recommend it to my family and friends. I have already given it to my sixteen year old daughter to read; I’m sure she will enjoy it as much as I have.
Thanks and I look forward to hopefully having another opportunity to review a book for Beauty & Lace.
Thank you, Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be one of the first to read Eowyn Ivey’s Snow Child. Along with others from this site, I found it hard to put down. I was never truely sure about the Snow Child – real or imaginary and even had me trying to work out until the end of the book the truth of the matter. It was certainly not predictable but I loved it.
Not having alot of contact with snow and wintery months here in sunny Queensland, Ivey took me on a journey back in time, to snow and wood cabins, hard work, nature, supporting your friends and family and having a go. I loved reading about the connections made by Jack and Mabel, and how these connections made their lives better / happier.
A great read & already being loaned out to friends! Thanks again
INTERESTING NEWS:
I loved this book so much that once i had finished it and posted my review here i then emailed the author.
This morning Ive just checked my emails to find that she has emailed me back. A lovely email thanking me for all my kind words and saying how delighted she is that i loved her book so much.
She thought it was lovely that i took the time to email her but i thought it was lovely that she took the time to email me in return 🙂
When I recieved this book I had been on the hunt for a good book to read, one that would really draw me into the story and captivate me — well this book certainly did it. From the moment I set eyes on the book it looked sophisticated but simple with a hard blue cover and a pretty like design yet a simple title. I began reading the book that night and loved the style and story so much that each night I read I found it near impossible to put down. I’d plan to read for 20-30mins but would end up reading for 1.5-2 hours, not stopping till after midnight as I would just read ‘one little bit more’ time and time again.
The story is quite imaginative and gets you thinking, even now after i’ve finished the ending there is still magic about the story and my mind is still thinking about what really happened as it’s never really clear – It leaves you thinking. I finished the book yesterday and I keep thinking about parts of the story and wondering. This happened to me throughout the week I was reading it too. I think the ending was much different to I expected but it was great none the less.
The storyline is really easy to follow and I found it a really captivating read. I’m not going to say anything about the actual story as I don’t want to ruin any of it for anyone, but I will say the characters are ones you can really understand and get to know, and quite easily relatable. I came to love the characters especially the beautiful sounding girl Faina. The story is so realistic, yet so not realistic at the same time; part of the magic I guess. The story takes unexpected turns and just when you think you know what might happen, it doesn’t! I would highly reccomend reading this, I think it is a story that most people would enjoy and it really is a book that takes you away from your reality and into the world of the characters. I’m really glad I had a chance to read this magical book, I will be passing it to my mum to read next 🙂
What a fantastic novel…
Firstly, the cover and the way the book was presented was just so beautiful, the dark blue cover with silver/white prints on it automatically makes you want to read it right away.
Once you start reading it you are pulled into a whole other world and it becomes hard to put the book down.
The writing was so lovely and I fell in love with the characters and scenery. This is a great escape from your busy life and its great to hear the story unfold.
Thanks for a fabulous read and I am giving this to my housemates for them to read aswell 🙂