An old Russian folk tale has it that a childless couple, living on the edge of the woods, build themselves a child out of snow, who then comes to life. In a stunning debut novel, Alaskan Eowyn Ivey reworks this story. Mabel and Jack, a couple from Pennsylvania, come to 1920s Alaska to forget the pain of losing a baby. They struggle through a long, dark winter and build their own snow child. But does she really come to life, or is Faina just a feral local girl? With Mabel still grieving for her lost child, we drift in and out of uncertainty as the whole spellbinding story unfolds.