Review: The Snow Child

Title: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Publisher: Headline Review (UK)

Alone in their homestead on the Alaskan frontier, Mabel mends shirts and mourns for the child she lost long ago, whilst Jack struggles to carve out a new life for them before the harsh winter snows come. It was supposed to be a fresh start, but out here, alone but for the sounds of the wild, lost dreams loom all the more.

The tale of the Russian snow child is just a story - or is it? When the snowgirl Jack and Mabel have built is destroyed and an elusive child appears in its place, who is to know if she is flesh and blood, or an imagining brought on by grief and loneliness? And if she will be theirs, does it matter?