SEPTEMBER 2025: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey – ALASKA

1st September 2025

#fromourbookshelves

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a magical story, based on the Russian folk tale of the Snow Maiden, and set in Alaska. For the author, the setting is of great importance and she focuses on describing the wild, harsh but awe-inspiring countryside that she knows well.

In a story set in the 1920s, Mabel and Jack are a middle-aged couple who will always grieve the loss of their still-born only child. They have given up a relatively comfortable life farming in Pennsylvania to take on the challenge of creating a homestead in Alaska, at Mabel’s suggestion. Initially Jack shoulders most of the work and Mabel finds herself completely isolated, as her husband is too tired to talk when he stops work for the day and their nearest neighbours are ten miles away. Jack is tackling virgin forest in an attempt to tame the Alaskan wilderness and create farmland which will eventually support them. Mabel is a professor’s daughter and feels ill-equipped to help her husband with the physical challenges they face.

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Despite their difficulties, the bond between Jack and Mabel is strong and with the first snowfall they celebrate by creating a snow girl. When Mabel later catches sight of an identical child near their home, she feels sure it is her imagination and the girl disappears into the forest. Initially Jack doesn’t believe the girl exists but later his own experience leads him to make a promise that drives a wedge between him and his wife. Each of them longs to have the snow child as a part of their life but they realise that it has to be on her terms, as she is as wild as the country itself.

Their neighbours, the Bensons, come to the rescue both emotionally and in practical terms. They offer their experience of homesteading, their labour and a share of their food, to help Mabel and Jack survive their early days in Alaska.

I must confess that the idea of re-telling a story that already exists seems like a bit of a cheat but in this case, the novel is so much more. The descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness are fantastic in their detail, from the wildlife to the landscape, and the harsh climate to the cranberry gin. Equally, the characters and love and friendship between them is so acutely involving as to be painful, in the nicest possible way. The snow girl herself is almost symbolic of her setting – she is delicate yet powerful, thriving in her place but withering when she is removed from it.

Read this story if you’d like an insight into pioneering life in the Alaskan wilderness, with powerful insights into love and friendship. You will dread the fairy tale ending that Mabel’s book suggests, but it will be worth it in the end.