I love modern takes on fairy tales, so this seemed like a good bet. We’re in the Alaskan frontier in the 1920s. Homesteaders from Pennsylvania Mable and Jack have set out for a new life together–they can’t have children, and they need a new scene. Their second winter in Alaska is harsh, cold, and miserable, but during one evening of lightheartedness, they build a little girl out of snow. The next morning, there’s no snow child left, but they do see a little girl wearing the same scarf and […]
A Fairy Tale in the Alaska Wilderness
The Snow Child (2012) by Eowyn Ivey is a book I had never heard of and wouldn’t have chosen to read if it weren’t for my book club. In fact, after reading the description, I was dreading it: “Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they […]