The Snow Child

The Snow Child closes with a lesson at once so simple and yet so difficult to embrace. In nature, in love, indeed in life, loss can never be the final word. As the wilderness taught Mabel, even the harshest winter must give way to spring. For a narrative apparently poised to end in tragedy, the Epilogue provides an uplifting affirmation of hard-earned joy. This is not the Mabel and Jack of Part 1. The loss of their stillborn child drove a deep wedge between the couple. They mourned alone. But the loss of Faina brought them together.

Together over the years since Faina returned to her wilderness, the couple shares their memories of the remarkable woman-child they adopted; together they look through Mabel’s sketches; and most importantly, together they embrace their role as grandparents. In bonding with Garrett and the Bensons, Mabel and Jack found a genuine extended family that, even as the world prepares to edge once again into winter, promises the reassuring warmth of support and love. The novel begins and ends with Mabel at the window gazing into the first snow of winter. But now she is no longer pining or pondering suicide. The experience with Faina taught her that love is all the magic we have and all the magic we need.