The Snow Child: A NovelIn this magical debut, a couple's lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep. 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. |
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Alaska animal arms baby Barbara Lavallee barn began beneath Bensons beside birch black spruce blue boots breath buried the lede cabin chair CHAPTER cheeks coat cold dinner door dress Eowyn Esther eyes face Faina fairy fairy tale feet forest Garrett George George Benson gone hair hands head heard held homestead horse Ivey's Jack Jack's kitchen knew lantern laudanum laughed legs little girl looked Mabel asked mittens moose morning mountains never night nodded potatoes pulled puppy red fox river shook shoulders side skin smiled Snegurochka snow angels Snow Child snow maiden snowflakes snowshoe hare spruce trees stay stood sure talk tell thought told took tracks trail trap tried turned wagon waited walked warm watched whispered wild window winter wolverine wondered woods woodstove wool yard