LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Rich with romance, mystery and family drama, Elisabeth Gifford’s A Woman Made of Snow is a delicious treat for readers who like their historic fiction seasoned with haunting atmosphere.
It’s 1949 and Caro and Alasdair Gillan are newly married Cambridge graduates living near his Scottish family home. Though elegant, crumbling Kelly Castle has seen better days, and hides many secrets, as Caro discovers when she accepts her mother-in-law’s suggestion that she research the Gillan family history. Her academic career curtailed when she falls pregnant soon after marriage, Caro is glad to have something to occupy her mind, and the mystery of a missing bride is certainly intriguing. The woman in question was married to Alasdair’s great-grandfather, Oliver, whom we meet when the narrative slips back to the late 1800s. As a boy, Oliver resolved to explore the frozen north, and later read medicine at Edinburgh University. Then, as broken-hearted young man, Oliver signs up to board a ship bound for the Arctic.
In the present, as a shocking find is made in the castle grounds, there are tensions between Caro and Alasdair’s family - she’s not the kind of woman they’d envisaged him marrying, yet she is the kind of woman who can uncover Oliver’s past, not least when she finds the diary of his voyage aboard the Narwhal whaling ship and pieces together a tragic and beautiful tale of love that exposes abhorrent Western notions of “savages”.
With a fine evocation of time, place, and Inuit society, A Woman Made of a Snow is a moving, captivating read.
Joanne Owen
Find This Book In
About
A Woman Made of Snow Synopsis
Caroline Gillan and her new husband Alasdair have moved back to Kelly Castle, his family estate in the wilds of Scotland. Stuck caring for their baby and trying to avoid her inscrutable mother-in-law, Caroline feels adrift and alone. But while sorting through old papers, Caroline stumbles across a family secret which changes everything.
There is one Gillan bride who has disappeared from history. No photos or records of her exist. The only certainty is that she had a legitimate child: Alasdair's grandmother. As Caroline unearths a story of love and adventure that stretches as far as the Arctic circle, her curiosity about the missing bride turns into an obsession. And when a body is found in the grounds of the castle, Caroline begins an investigation which could alter the course of her life forever . . .
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781786499080 |
| Publication date: |
3rd November 2022 |
| Author: |
Elisabeth Gifford |
| Publisher: |
Corvus an imprint of Atlantic Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
290 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Family Drama
|
| Other Genres: |
|
Press Reviews
Elisabeth Gifford Press Reviews
'The perfect mix of gripping plot and lyrical writing' - Good Housekeeping
'Absorbing' - Prima
'Secrets come creeping back to the surface in this chilling tale' - Woman's Own
'A thought-provoking, satisfying and enjoyable story to read ... [a] captivating, frequently moving story' - New Books Magazine
'Compelling' - Sarah Maine
'Gorgeous, melancholy' - The Times
'A glorious novel. You won't be able to put it down for a minute' - Suellen Dainty
'An undeniably haunting love story' - Sunday Times
Author
About Elisabeth Gifford
Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She has written articles for The Times and the Independent and has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is married with three children. They live in Kingston on Thames but spend as much time as possible in the Hebrides.
More About Elisabeth Gifford
