By Josh Humphrey
In thinking of a good Winter read, the first novel that comes to mind is “The Snow Child,” the
debut book by Eowyn Ivey, published back in 2012. This title was a major hit back in 2012,
easily garnering best seller status, and eventually becoming a finalist for the prestigious Pulitzer
Prize and a winner of the UK National Book Award. It has since been translated into 25
languages.
On the surface, this is a fairy tale-like story of a childless couple, Jack and Mabel, who build a
child out of snow, which seemingly comes to life as a wild, mysterious girl named Faina. It is, in
fact, based on an old Russian tale called ‘Snegurochka’, roughly translated to “The Snow
Maiden,” which also plays a part in the book, as a remembrance of Mabel from her childhood.
As you can probably tell already, this is an example of the Magical Realism genre, famous for
stories that are based in reality that then take some wild leaps into the realm of the unexplainable.
While there is a whimsical, magical quality to the book, it is also very much steeped in the
struggles of a harsh reality, as Jack and Mabel are trying to survive and live off the land as
homesteaders in 1920’s Alaska. Homesteading, which allowed settlers to claim land by settling
it and improving it, actually existed in the state until the late 1980’s. Ivey, as a native of Alaska
herself, is very adept at describing the harsh, but beautiful environment to the point that the
setting is pretty much a character of the novel as well.
The appearance of Faina, the Snow Child, is at first, a magical occurrence, as she appears to be a
product of the woods itself, hunting with a red fox by her side and moving with ease through the
snow. However, we do eventually learn more of her back story, which has also been shaped by
the harsh terrain. As she grows up and becomes closer to Jack and Mabel, her adopted human
parents, whom she brings much closer together, she is torn between their love and the constant
pull of her solitary existence in the woods and mountains. All eventually comes to a head in a
satisfying, mysterious and sad conclusion.
Read ‘The Snow Child’ for a bit of magical realism to brighten up this cold season. Read it for a
great cast of characters, who develop and change throughout the story. Read it as a story of a
wild spirit and the dangers of trying to contain it and put it in our own comfortable boxes. Read
it for a wonderful retelling of an old story. Either way, it is a wonderful novel that demands to be
read (or listened to, as there is a great audio version available on our Hoopla platform). If you do
and if you enjoy it as much as I did, please consider Ivey’s newest novel as well, 2025’s ‘Black
Woods, Blue Sky’, another story of Alaska that blends in some more fairy tale magic.
Josh Humphrey is the director of the Kearny Library.