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La niña de nieve by Eowyn Ivery
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La niña de nieve (original 2012; edition 2012)

by Eowyn Ivery

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4,5383372,504 (3.98)425
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.--From Amazon.… (more)
Member:-Nieves-
Title:La niña de nieve
Authors:Eowyn Ivery
Info:Grijalbo (2012), Paperback, 400 páginas
Collections:Leído, Audiolibros, Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Narrativa Contemporánea, Audiolibro

Work Information

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012)

  1. 81
    The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (Iudita)
  2. 60
    The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Becchanalia)
    Becchanalia: Same delicate language and imagery, a similar sense of wistful beauty and elements of magical realism.
  3. 30
    The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (Iudita)
    Iudita: Beautifully written and based on folklore.
  4. 00
    The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan (vwinsloe)
    vwinsloe: A folk tale brought to life.
  5. 00
    The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld (beyondthefourthwall)
  6. 03
    Silas Marner by George Eliot (suniru)
    suniru: Both books center upon orphans and both have fairy tale roots.
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» See also 425 mentions

English (328)  Dutch (2)  Italian (1)  Spanish (1)  German (1)  Chinese, traditional (1)  Danish (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (336)
Showing 1-5 of 328 (next | show all)
Two thirds supernatural story and mystery and one third quotidian romance set in early twentieth century rural Alaska equals two thirds excellent magical realist novel and one third mediocrity.

Jack and Mabel have just picked up from their Pennsylvania home and taken on a homestead in Alaska. Married late (for the time) in their thirties, they suffered a stillborn child and now in their late forties, childless, they are fleeing from their mostly silent grief and unfulfilled dreams of a family. They are great characters and their sometimes difficult yet always tender relationship is wonderfully developed.

On the night of the first big snow of the winter season, as they are struggling mightily to carve out a foothold in the Alaskan wilderness and their ability to make a go of it is in deep doubt, they make a snowgirl in a moment of levity. The next morning it has been destroyed, the mittens and scarf they placed on it gone, and they begin to see a child running among the trees and sometimes coming to their cabin. Naturally, she is wearing the mittens and scarf.

Here we learn that this story has been based on a Russian folk tale in which an old childless couple makes a girl out of the snow, who then comes to life as the daughter they never had. The story does not end well, the girl eventually melting away/tragically disappearing, either due to getting too warm or falling in mortal love.

Is this what has happened to Jack and Mabel? Mabel believes so. Jack meanwhile learns of another tragic possibility. Which one does the author ultimately intend? She'll keep you guessing. Thus far it is a brilliant novel: great characters, a great well sketched setting the author is intimately familiar with (being a native Alaskan), and an intriguing magically tinged story.

To follow the outlines of the fairy tale, something has to befall the girl. Having her melt at a campfire probably wouldn't work, so Ivey takes the reasonable path of having the girl grow into her late teens and fall in love. Unfortunately for me this is where the novel lost a lot of its charm and magic and became somewhat dreary. Her love interest is a boring character, and the lovestruck teenage girl comes off worse on the written page than a mysterious snow pixie child.

But all in all, still a really good read. ( )
  lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
Clever story but a bit to ethereal. ( )
  SteveMcI | Jan 26, 2024 |
Probably more of 3.5 but it lost enough steam that I can't justify a 4th star.

A book that begins in reality eventually dips into the magical only to come to a very real ending. I wanted the magic to last. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
Beautifully written. Hard to describe how this book creeps up on you. I stayed up all night to finish it. Gorgeous and terrifying. ( )
1 vote dhenn31 | Jan 24, 2024 |
So, I like magical realism, I enjoy a good literary fiction every now and then, I’m intrigued by historical Alaska, and I also like a good fairytale retelling now and again.

This is the tale of Mabel and Jack, who have moved to the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s to start their lives anew, after a death in the family. They’ve always wanted a child, and one day, make a small snow-girl….the next day it’s gone, and a little blond girl has appeared, coming to them each winter, the child that the couple never had. But the question of the story is, is she real? Is she the fabled Snow Child, or perhaps a human-fairy hybrid?

This is a sad, haunting, and beautifully written book that’s the perfect read for cold, dark winter days. The sense of isolation is very real in this book. The descriptions of the wilderness are so vivid, as is Mabel and Jack’s grief. The relationship with Faina, the child, and their new friends was a joy to read. Faina is mysterious and we never learn much about her. The story takes place over about a decade, and I enjoyed reading about Mabel and Jack and their friends growing, both emotionally and physically.

The ending is left quite vague, though, still adding to that sense of wonder. Yet it frustrated me because I like more concrete endings. I didn’t care for all the descriptions of hunting animals, but I understand that this is set in the wilderness in the 1920s, and this was how people survived. Some parts in the middle were very slow.

It’s definitely a different type of read. But if you love magical realism and fairytale retellings and want a truly atmospheric setting with beautiful prose, give this a try. ( )
  galian84 | Dec 29, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 328 (next | show all)
"Inspired by the Russian fairy tale The Snow Maiden, Eowyn Ivey's deubut novel, The Snow Child (Back Bay: Little, Brown. 2012. ISBN 9780316175661. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9780316192958), features Jack and Mabel, a childless couple grieving their infant son's death. ...richly evokes landscape and nature as it explores the many types of families that find their way into being."
added by KoobieKitten | editLibrary Journal | January 2015 | Vol. 140 No. 1, Andrea Tarr (Jan 1, 2015)
 
when I was wiping my eyes at the end — must have been snow blowing in my face — I felt sorry to see these kind people go. Sad as the story often is, with its haunting fairy-tale ending, what I remember best are the scenes of unabashed joy. That isn’t a feeling literary fiction seems to have much use for, but Ivey conveys surprising moments of happiness with such heartfelt conviction. Mabel’s sister puts it well in a letter from Pennsylvania: “In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees.”

You’ll catch that same magic in the leaves of this book.
added by danielx | editWashington Post, Ron Charles (Jun 6, 2012)
 
Ivey's delightful invention hovers somewhere between myth and naturalism — and the effect this creates is mesmerizing.... A chilly setting? Yes. A sad tale? This terrific novelistic debut will convince you that in some cases, a fantastic story — with tinges of sadness and a mysterious onward-pulsing life force — may be best for this, or any, season.
added by danielx | editNPR, Alan Cheuse (Jun 6, 2012)
 
Once you've revelled in these ambiguities, though, there's a problem with The Snow Child: there isn't a lot more to it. Ivey touches on the question of what it means to be a parent – the impossible desire to capture and tame the very thing you must set free – but only fleetingly, with more imagery than depth. This is pure storytelling, refreshingly ungilded and sympathetic, but little more
added by danielx | editThe Guardian (UK) (Feb 2, 2012)
 
The book’s tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska’s punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina’s charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned.
added by danielx | editKirkus Reviews (Feb 1, 2012)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ivey, Eowynprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Arlinghaus, ClaudiaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Biekmann, LidwienTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Chapman, IsabelleTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Grinde, HeidiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hansen, Marielle NielsenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hill, ToniTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Monk, DebraNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pareschi, MonicaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ransome, ArthurContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
'Wife, let us go into the yard behind and make a little snow girl; and perhaps she will come alive, and be a little daughter to us.'
'Husband' says the old woman, 'there's no knowing what may be. Let us go into the yard and make a little snow girl.'

The Little Daughter of the Snow' by Arthur Ransome
Dedication
For my daughters, Grace and Aurora
First words
Mabel had known there would be silence.
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

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Wikipedia in English

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Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.--From Amazon.

No library descriptions found.

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.
L'Alaska , es forêts impénétarables , ses étendues enneigées . Son silence . Sa solitude. Depuis la mort de leur bébé , le marriage de Mabel et Jack n'a plus jamais été le même . Partir vivre sur ces terres inhospitalières paraissait alors une bonne idée . Peu de temps après , une petite fille apparaît près de leur cabane , parfois suivie d'un renard roux tout aussi farouche qu'elle . Qui est elle ? D'où vient elle ? Et si cette petite fille etait la clé de ce Bonheur qu'ils n'attendaient plus ? Inspiré d'un conte traditionnel ruse , la fille de l'hiver est à la fois un roman moderne et intemporel où le réalisme des descriptions n'enlève rien à la poésie d'une histoire merveilleuse ... dans tous les sens du terme.
Haiku summary
Set in Alaska,
A gentle tale about a
Snow child. Or is she?
(passion4reading)

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