Book Review #51

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

From the point of view of Nicky, a twelve-year old who lost her mother and baby sister in a car crash, Light On Snow tells the story of a girl and her father coming upon an abandoned newborn baby in the snowed in woods near their home in Vermont. Nicky's father rescues the baby and the State searches for the mother who abandoned her. Soon the woman appears at Nicky's home and must stay for a couple of days during a severe storm. Nicky takes us through the loss of her mother and sister, the grief she and her father continue to endure and her desire to have this woman raise her baby in her own home to give her back some of what's she's lost.

General consensus: Seems like it should be drowning in mundane details but you appreciate the opportunity to leave yourself to live in this other world for awhile, even if it is almost completely devoid of joy. At least it's somewhere else.