Bargain Ebook: The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey

  

The Snow Child: A Novel (US) by Eowyn Ivey has dropped to $4.99 from $11.99 in ebook format in the US, a temporary price drop, I imagine. This has been on my wishlist all year and so I snapped this one up. I can't see if there have been big drops in the ebook prices in other countries.

The novel is in part inspired by a Russian snow child tale available on SurLaLune at The Little Daughter of the Snow. If you read it, you will recognize the book described here.

This tale shouldn't be confused with The Snow Child ATU Type 1362 which deals more with a wife's questionable loyalty to her husband. This tale is much more bittersweet in which a couple longs for a child together and create one out of snow. It is a bittersweet tale, especially for the childless.
Book description:

A bewitching tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska.

Jack and Mabel have staked everything on making a fresh start for themselves in a homestead 'at the world's edge' in the raw Alaskan wilderness. But as the days grow shorter, Jack is losing his battle to clear the land, and Mabel can no longer contain her grief for the baby she lost many years before.

The evening the first snow falls, their mood unaccountably changes. In a moment of tenderness, the pair are surprised to find themselves building a snowman - or rather a snow girl - together. The next morning, all trace of her has disappeared, and Jack can't quite shake the notion that he glimpsed a small figure - a child? - running through the spruce trees in the dawn light. And how to explain the little but very human tracks Mabel finds at the edge of their property?

Written with the clarity and vividness of the Russian fairytale from which it takes its inspiration, The Snow Child is an instant classic - the story of a couple who take a child into their hearts, all the while knowing they can never truly call her their own.

And here is a book trailer: