The Snow Child

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
An aging couple receives their lifelong dream of raising a child, but with a twist—this child belongs to the snow.
Jack and Mabel, an old, childless couple, move to the Alaskan wilderness to start a homestead on their own. They've just buried their newborn and their grief has become immobilizing; they hope a change in scenery will help them move on. As their silent grief slowly tears the two apart, the first Alaskan winter hits, bringing a deep snowfall with it, and Jack and Mabel come together to build a little snow-child in the yard. They lovingly shape a young face with stark features, dressing it with coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, a wild berry to stain the lips deep red. The next morning, their little snow-child has disappeared, taking the winter clothing with it and leaving only mysterious footprints in the snow. After that day, Jack and Mabel catch glimpses of a young girl in the forest wearing the same winter clothes and eventually build trust with her and raise her as their own. They learn her real name—Faina—and attempt to accept her mystical relationship with the forest and snow. Faina comes and goes with winter, staying only until the first signs of Spring. Mable and Jack plead with the young girl to live with them at their homestead, stay through the summer, and go to school like a normal girl, but Faina refuses with determination and conviction to remain a child of the snow. This conflict continues throughout the rest of the book and only runs into complications when Faina starts to befriend and fall in love with a young boy from the neighboring homestead.
Eowyn Ivey writes with beautiful imagery that pulls the reader into the world of the Alaskan frontier, while also providing a nearness with the characters by writing through several of their perspectives. The plot is filled with multiple elements of magical realism that leave a lasting impact on the reader. The main characters of the story, Mabel and Jack, struggle themselves to accept the mystical elements that their snow child exhibits. Faina thrives in extremely cold temperatures, lives perfectly fine on her own in the wild, snowflakes don't melt when she touches them, she comes and goes with winter—all these elements and more are expertly interwoven within reality to make the characters and the reader view the lines between the mystical and real as increasingly blurred. This book will have you invested at every page and leave you with a new vision of the world and family—a must-read.