The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey One of the most moving books of the year. A bleak landscape and a bleak outlook is Jack and Mabel's lot in life. After the loss of a much wanted child and the hope of another gone Mabel, lost in despair and needing to escape the happy family scenarios of other family members whilst achieving something, urges husband Jack to move to Alaska, to attempt to tame the wildness there, to make a good living, to be a unit. Alas, the winters are long and wild, the work is hard, day to day living is tough in the harshness of a long winter and their feelings for each other are drifting further and further apart. Nothing is turning out as Mabel expected, even killing herself proves to be too difficult. Then some relief comes in the form of their nearest neighbours and one night in a girlish fit, Mabel incites Jack to make a snowgirl. That night they are closer than they've been in years and in the next days the Snow Girl comes to visit, slowly and surely she becomes a regular visitor over that winter, only ever seen by Jack and Mabel, vanishing as mysteriously as she appears. Finally, they have something to live for, to work for but the Snow Girl only sticks around for winter but promises to return - and she does, as soon as the first snow falls the girl returns, only to disappear at the first signs of Spring. We are given two different beliefs about the Snow Girl - Mabel believes she is their child, made from snow and brought alive from love. Jack knows differently. No one else sees her until she is full grown and then things take a different turn. It's a very beautiful tale, bringing the bleak landscape of Alaska alive, depicting the hope and love that this strange child brings with her visits but is she real or not? Only the reader can decide if she is a fairy tale brought to life or a very real girl - and as for the end, well, read it and make up your own mind....