Book of the day - once upon a time ...

    I saw that The Mainstreet Trading Company were tweeting their 'book of the day' earlier (it was a new omnibus edition of His Dark Materials - I'm tempted ...) so I thought I'd follow suit with two books from the TBR pile, both ones which stand out. Over on Cornflower you'll find some non-fiction which should appeal to all those interested in plants, textiles, spiritual matters, history, travel and biography, but here we have a novel.

    The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey will not be out for a wee while yet, but it sounds like a book worth waiting for. Here's the gist:

    "November 1920. 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. Mabel surprises herself by throwing a snowball at her husband; then, in a moment of tenderness, the two build 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?"

    Based on a Russian fairytale, The Snow Child is going to be a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime next Spring; meanwhile, Ali Shaw, author of The Girl with Glass Feet, says of it,  "This book is real magic, shot through from cover to cover with the cold, wild beauty of the Alaskan frontier. Eowyn Ivey writes with all the captivating delicacy of the snowfalls she so beautifully describes."

    I'm so looking forward to reading it.

Comments

[Sandra]

Yours is the first blogger mention I've seen of this book. I've had it on hold for almost three months at the library, but now I see it's not due to be released until February so it'll be a wait yet. I'm looking forward to comparing your thoughts on it.

[Elaine]

Sandra - I have flagged this up over on Random Jottings and have started reading it. I am holding back on it so that it stays fresh in my memory for the publication date but what I have read so far I have loved.