Light on Snow by Anita Shreve is one of the best book authored by Anita Shreve. It starts with Walking through new-fallen snow in the forest near their home, Nicky Dillon, 12, and her father come upon something inconceivable: there, in the pristine winter scene, an abandoned infant wails, its survival made possible only by the coincidence of their having chosen this path for their evening stroll.
In the days and weeks that follow, Nicky learns about corners of the adult world that she never dreamed existed, and, for the first time, she asks questions about her life’s strange shape.
Why has her father moved them to this isolated corner of the country? What is his responsibility for the tragedy that led them here? How can she confront the chasm between his needs and her own growing sense of the world? Then everything is thrown into stark relief by the arrival of a young woman haunted by her own terrible choices.
With the glorious prose and emotional power that have won readers all over the world, Light on Snow by Anita Shreve delivers her deepest and most powerful novel yet – a mesmerizing story of the secrets we keep and the secrets we unearth, and the power of forgiveness to mend even the most battered souls.
Light on Snow Review:
A light, easy to read book but with a heavy subject matter. The narrator, Nicky, was suddenly thrown into a world of isolation (almost!) after her father decided to move to a place far away from where they lived before. It was a way for him to deal with life after Nicky’s mother and baby sister perished in a car accident.
There are only a few characters in the Light on Snow book so it is really easy to keep track of them. But the most important person Nicky will ever meet at this point of life is a young woman who appears at their doorstep one fine day, to look at furniture made by Nicky’s father.
Since Nicky at that time did not have a motherly figure around, she immediately took to the young woman, despite objections by her (Nicky’s) father.
It’s a great book for young adults and older readers. The issue of baby dumping is the focus of this book and it will indeed be an eye-opener to all about the consequences of ever doing such an inhumane thing.
It also deals with loss, grief, hope and moving on with life even though one feels it is impossible.
This is my first time reading a book by Anita Shreve. I just read some reviews about her books being centered on marriages and adultery (???) so I’m glad I picked the Light on Snow book up first. The chapters are short, which works great for me. It is nothing spectacular but still, a great book to read.
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