The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is about an older, childless couple living in 1920s named Jack and Mabel.  Devastated over the birth of a stillborn baby and their inability to conceive another child, they pull up stakes and move to an isolated farm in Alaska.  They are trying to escape their grief with a fresh start in a wild, untamed place, but they soon find that their sadness follows them to their new home.  In a rare moment of lightheartedness one winter, Jack and Mabel build a girl out of snow.  Their creation is a delicate little thing, with yellow straw hair and berry-stained lips.  Their moment of whimsy brings the couple closer together, but the next morning, they are startled to see their creation is gone.  Instead, they find a real little girl running through the frozen woods in its place.  What follows is a tale of love, loss, family and a little bit of magic.

This book was stunningly, achingly, amazingly beautiful. Ivey's language strikes an fine balance between simplicity and depth, allowing her to examine ideas like familial bonds, grief, and love in a way that feels fundamentally true. The Snow Child is based on a Russian fairy tale, and although this is a modernized version of the story, it still reads like an old storybook.  How much magic the story actually contains is left to the reader to decide, but it certainly feels like anything is possible in Ivey's cold, mysterious world.  I truly felt transported to the Alaskan wilderness while I was reading this. I briefly considered giving everything up a starting a farm somewhere--not seriously, of course, but I wanted a bit of the solitude and wonder that Jack and Mabel found when they struck out on their own.  The writing was that powerful.     

The plot of The Snow Child is quiet, and focuses on relationships.  The bonds between husband and wife, between parent and child, and between friends take center stage.  Jack and Mabel originally head to Alaska to isolate themselves, but fate, or magic, or maybe just human nature won't allow them to do so.  As time passes, they become entangled in the lives of others.  They learn how to depend on friends, to seek help and support, and to open their hearts to others again.  Their story is sad at times and hopeful at others, but always real.  While some events seems fantastic, the emotions they trigger are not.  The strength of this novel is in its heart.

The Snow Child was a Pulitzer nominee, and the recognition is richly deserved. Beautiful and magical, the impression this novel made will stay with me a long time.  I'm sorry that I waited so long to read it, but I am happy that my month of Kindle reading brought it to my attention again.