Alaska, 1920, is no easy time or place to live. Mabel and Jack, approaching their 50s and suffering still from the loss of their stillborn baby ten years earlier, have decided to leave their family farm back in Pennsylvania and start a new life as Alaskan homesteaders. Mabel in particular craves the solitude to be found by living, just the two of them, on an isolated patch of land, relieved of the daily pain of seeing families with children wherever she turns. 
 Homestead life is cruel and filled with hard work, and silence fills their lives, until the day that a spritely child shows up in their yard with the first snowfall of winter. Faina is beautiful, delicate, and skittish, impossible to tame, yet in need of Mabel and Jack's company and love as well. They accept her into their lives, but Faina disappears back into the snow and wilderness after each visit. Slowly but surely, the couple's love for the girl grows, despite never quite knowing where she goes when she leaves or when she'll come again. 
 Is she real? Is she a product of imagination brought on by the isolation of cabin fever? Is she wishful thinking, inspired by a beloved childhood fairy tale book to which Mabel constantly refers? Faina's true identity doesn't remain mysterious for very long, but that doesn't detract from her otherness, the impossibility of pinning her down. 
 The Snow Child is beautifully written. Author Eowyn Ivey (gotta love an author named for a character from Lord of the Rings!) does a lovely job describing the landscapes of the Alaskan wilderness, its flora and fauna. This is one of those books best read under a pile of thick quilts in front of a cozy fireplace -- I dare you to read this book and not feel the chill of winter seeping into your bones.