Novel of the week: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

last updated 8 January 2015

(Reagan Arthur, $25)

First-time novelist Eowyn Ivey has turned a Russian fairy tale into a “stunning and startling adult novel, full of wonder, pain, and beauty,” said Sarah Willis in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Based on the fable “The Snow Maiden,” Ivey’s tale begins in the icy wilderness of rural Alaska. There, a childless couple in their late 40s venture outside one night and build a snow child, finished with a red scarf. In the morning, the figure is gone, and footprints lead into the mountains. Soon, there are glimpses of a red-scarfed girl running among the trees. “The real magic of this story is that it’s never as simple as it seems,” said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Whether the child exists or not, she and the couple who conjured her “will capture your imagination.” The plot of Ivey’s story can’t quite sustain the book’s 400 pages. “That said, when I was wiping my eyes at the end—must have been snow blowing in my face—I felt sorry to see these kind people go.”