The Snow Child

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Fiction
2012 Regan Arthur Books
Finished on February 18, 2020
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Magical, yes, but The Snow Child is also satisfyingly realistic in its depiction of 1920s homestead-era Alaska and the people who settle there, including an older couple bound together by resilient love. Eowyn Ivey's poignant debut novel grabbed me from the very first page. ~ Andromeda Romano-Lax, Author of The Spanish Bow

Publisher's Blurb:

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 build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

The Snow Child has been on my TBR list since it was first published and I'm so glad that I finally made the time to read it. I rarely make New Year's resolutions, but last month while looking at Goodreads, I was shocked to see that I have close to 800 titles on my list of books I want to read. It's so easy to read the latest releases, but there are so many great books that have been languishing on my list for years. Some have been there since I first joined Goodreads, dating back to 2012. So, I decided to flip the order of the list so I could see what I first added and will try to read from those early choices throughout the year. The Snow Child was at the top of the list and it didn't disappoint!

I've never been a big fan of magical realism, but the elements of this narrative style are subtle in Ivey's debut and I was quickly swept up in this charming tale. The main characters are fully realized and I especially enjoyed watching the growing friendship develop between Mabel and her neighbor, Esther. My attention began to wane somewhat toward the middle of the book, but the tension resumed and I was once again engrossed, eager to see what lay ahead. The problem with magical realism is that one has to suspend disbelief and while reading The Snow Child, there were a few instances in which I wanted a logical explanation, but as with fables and fairy tales, one cannot expect a rational reason for every action. I am willing to accept the inexplicable and have a feeling that this story will stay with me a long time. I'm amazed that The Snow Child is the author's first book and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of her second novel, To the Bright Edge of the World, which is also set in Alaska at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Favorite Passages:

We never know what is going to happen, do we? Life is always throwing us this way and that. That’s where the adventure is. Not knowing where you’ll end up or how you’ll fare. It’s all a mystery, and when we say any different, we’re just lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive?

and 

When she slowly straightened, the land was vast before her. The sun was setting down the river, casting a cold pink hue along the white-capped mountains that framed both sides of the valley. Upriver, the willow shrubs and gravel bars, the spruce forests and low-lying poplar stands, swelled to the mountains in steely blue. No fields or fences, homes or roads; not a single living soul as far as she could see in any direction. Only wilderness.