A thought-provoking page-turner (Light on Snow - Anita Shreve)

Member Name: cjc3001

Product:	Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Date:	25/09/08 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A brilliant premise for a book, exploring many different emotions

Disadvantages: None that I've found

I've just finished reading this book as recommended by a friend, and I've really enjoyed it.

The book tells the story of a 12-year-old girl called Nicole, who moves to New England with her father following the tragic death in a car accident of her mother & baby sister. They have bought a house in the forest away from the nearest town, & her father takes her out snow-shoeing one evening when they make a shocking discovery in the woodland of a new-born baby wrapped in a sleeping bag. The baby is still alive, so they rush her to the nearest hospital & so begins the main plot of the book.

The author writes the novel in the present tense, and very successfully manages to convince the reader that the story is being narrated by the 12-year-old girl, and you really do see the story developing through her eyes, as she struggles to come to terms with how the baby came to be abandoned, especially following the loss of her mother & younger sister, as well as exploring her relationship with her father, which has been somewhat fraught & distant since their loss.

I really enjoyed this book & found it a real page-turner; it's relatively easy reading but with a conscience. It deals with the sad loss that can be faced in life sometimes but at the same time the ability to move forward in life, & Nicole's forgiveness of her father as she understands why he made the difficult decision to move her hundreds of miles from all that she knew & loved in New York before the tragedy of the accident.

Summary: A good recommendation if you like novels that have some depth to them