Why “The Snow Child” is a great spring read

Magic, love, despair, hope and snow. Only in Eowyn Ivey’s novel “The Snow Child” do all of these terms converge to create a realistic fairytale as beautiful and mystifying as the girl to which the title refers.

Ivey’s story begins in 1920 in the far-off icy wilderness of Alaska. This unforgiving and enigmatic setting does not exactly welcome middle-aged couple Jack and Mabel, who are childless and looking to escape their melancholy life in Pennsylvania.

At first, the couple secludes themselves from their neighbors and even from each other, with Jack attempting to tend to a farm and scrape together some income while Mabel cares for the home. It’s clear at first that Jack and Mabel’s attempt to find solace in a new life is not what they thought it would be, as it seems that the move has instead created a wider rift between the two.

However, this all changes when Jack accepts an offer of help from a neighbor, George. George, his wife Esther and their sons are introduced into Jack and Mabel’s life. Mabel is hesitant to accept friends at first, since one aim of her move to Alaska was to escape the judgment and trivial chatter of friends and relatives, especially in regards to her childlessness. But, Esther’s loud and bold personality acts as the perfect foil to Mabel’s more reserved, proper demeanor, and the two families soon bond.

Even with a newly forming friendship, Mabel’s loneliness still tugs at her and flashbacks from the day when she and Jack buried their stillborn child echo through her mind. The season’s first snowfall brings a magical playfulness into the air and Mabel and Jack spontaneously decide to construct a snow child out of the newly fallen snow.

They think little of the occurrence, until the following day when the snow child mysteriously disappears and in its place are child-sized footprints. To make matters even more curious, they begin seeing a fairy-like little girl with icy blonde hair running through the woods by their home. After some days of patiently coaxing the girl, Jack and Mabel learn that her name is Faina and she lives alone in the snowy wilderness, hunting alongside a red fox.

While Faina becomes like a daughter to Jack and Mabel, she is never truly obtainable to them, similar to the way that one cannot hold a snowflake in his or her hand. She leaves once the temperature begins to rise for the spring season, and only returns to them again with the first snowfall of winter.

Mabel realizes that the mystical appearance of Faina is reminiscent of a story that her father often read to her as a child about an old couple who builds a snow child that comes to life.

Faina’s story is nearly parallel to the fairytale that Mabel remembers, leading Mabel to fear that Faina will meet the same fate as the snow child in the fairytale. Furthermore, Jack discovers secrets about Faina’s past that leaves the reader wondering whether Faina is the miracle that Mabel believes, or if there are more sinister circumstances leading to Faina finding them.

“Snow Child” is Alaskan journalist and bookseller Ivey’s debut novel, which is surprising considering her ability to weave such a beautifully heartbreaking and emotional tale with realistic, believable characters.

As for me, I was simply entranced by this breathtaking novel, and I read it cover to cover in only two days. I was mystified by the brilliant images of a far-off place to which I have never been and the spark of magic that I believe we all need in our lives. Simply put, I was as ensnared in Ivey’s novel as the majestic swan in the trap that Faina had set in the forest