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Light on Snow

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 15,126 ratings · 1,226 reviews

What makes a family? That's what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and an unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door-a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices-face a thicket of deci...more

Mass Market Paperback, 282 pages

Published December 1st 2006 by Little Brown and Company (first published January 1st 2004)

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Community Reviews

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Jul 21, 2007 Daniel Baxter rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: young adults

I read this book to be a good book club member. The target audience appeared to be young adult women, so this book was not really my thing. That being said, it took only about four hours to read, which was a plus (and is why the book is worthy of two stars). Many of the characters seemed like caricatures, and many of their actions were not very believable. The narrator was supposedly 30 at the time the narration was occurring, but sounds like she is 12. Young adult women who like coming of age s...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Saman added it · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

رمان (نور بر برف) از جمله رمان‌هايي به حساب مي‌آيد كه به اهميّتِ انسان و رعايت عواطف آن كه تمامِ هستي يك انسان را تشكيل مي‌دهد، پرداخته است. اين‌كه هر يك از ما داستاني، رازي، دردي ناگفتني داريم و اين راز، داستان يا درد تا پايان عمر با ما همراه است و سعي مي‌كنيم با آن به جدال درآييم و بر آن غلبه كنيم و در آخر به نقطه‌اي مي‌رسيم كه تسليم مي‌شويم و با آن و در كنار آن
تا پايان عمر زندگي مي‌كنيم

طرح اين رمان، حكايت دختري دوازده ساله است كه همراه پدرش هنگام قدم زدن در فصل زمستان به نوزاد تازه‌ به دنيا...more رمان (نور بر برف) از جمله رمان‌هايي به حساب مي‌آيد كه به اهميّتِ انسان و رعايت عواطف آن كه تمامِ هستي يك انسان را تشكيل مي‌دهد، پرداخته است. اين‌كه هر يك از ما داستاني، رازي، دردي ناگفتني داريم و اين راز، داستان يا درد تا پايان عمر با ما همراه است و سعي مي‌كنيم با آن به جدال درآييم و بر آن غلبه كنيم و در آخر به نقطه‌اي مي‌رسيم كه تسليم مي‌شويم و با آن و در كنار آن
تا پايان عمر زندگي مي‌كنيم

طرح اين رمان، حكايت دختري دوازده ساله است كه همراه پدرش هنگام قدم زدن در فصل زمستان به نوزاد تازه‌ به دنيا آمده‌اي بر مي‌خورند كه رهايش كرده‌اند و تلاش اين پدر و دختر براي زنده نگه داشتن اين نوزاد و به نوعي نجات جان يك انسان كه همان نجات جان همه‌ي انسان‌هاست

در گير و دار داستان، شخصيت‌هاي تازه‌اي وارد مي‌شوند و خواننده در طول روايت نسبت به آن‌ها داراي حس مثبت و منفي مي‌شود و وقتي اين شخصيت‌ها سخنان خود را بيان مي‌كنند و هر يك داستان زندگي خود را به خواننده منتقل مي‌كنند در مي‌يابيم كه سخت‌ترين و ناممكن‌ترين كارها در جهان همان (قضاوت كردن) است و در پايان كتاب، با تجربه‌ي اولين بار پريود شدن قهرمان دختر اين رمان، نويسنده به نوعي مي‌خواهد خواننده را همراه با قهرمان دختر داستانش به بلوغ فكري درباره‌ي كاراكترهاي داستانش برساند تا خوانندگانش بدانند كه " انسان به انسان زنده است " و هم‌چنين محبت

رمان (نور بر برف) از مشكل بزرگي نيز رنج مي‌برد و آن عدم رعايت زبان داستان است. چون حوصله‌ي چنداني ندارم به اختصار بيان مي‌كنم. زبان روايت داستان از زبان يك دختر دوازده ساله بيان مي‌شود؛ يعني اول شخص مفرد. زبان روايي يك دختر بچه‌ي دوازده ساله با يك زن بيست ساله و يا يك پسر بچه شانزده ساله فرق مي‌كند. چرا كه ديدها و تجربه‌‌هاي آن‌ها متفاوت است. مرحوم (گلشيري) داستاني دارد به نام (عروسك چيني من). اين داستان علاوه بر اين‌كه جزو بهترين داستان‌هاي كوتاه ادبيات فارسي است، يكي از بهترين الگوها براي درك عرض بنده است؛ بدين صورت كه ما وقتي اين داستان را مي‌خوانيم واقعاً باور مي‌كنيم كه اين داستان از زبان يك دختر بچه‌ي هفت هشت ساله بيان مي‌شود. و يا وقتي كتاب (ناطور دشت) را مي‌خوانيم دقيقاً حس مي‌كنيم كه يك پسر بچه‌ي شانزده ساله دارد داستان تعريف مي‌كند

مشكلي كه زبان روايت اين رمان از آن رنج مي‌برد همين است. زبان روايت، بيان يك (دختر دوازه ساله) نيست، بل‌كه (زني‌ست كه سعي مي‌كند مثل يك دختر دوازده ساله به دنيا نگاه كند و حرف بزند) و متاسفانه از عهده‌ي آن بر نمي‌آيد. به جز اين مشكل، در كل كتابي‌ست كه ارزش وقت گذاشتن براي خواندنش را داراست
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Mar 06, 2009 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Humph. Girl, 12, who has suffered tragic loss of mother and infant sister, finds abandoned baby in woods. She and her father find redemption.

That COULD have been a good book. Obvious, but good. In this case, alas, it is not. You get the impression that Shreve is shooting for depth and emotional resonance, but what she manages to hit is pretty limp characterizations and a rather silly plot. And as for emotional resonance? Missed that altogether. 30 year old protagonist Nicky, writing about being...more

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Nov 12, 2008 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I found this book to be slow going at first, but it finally picked up in the middle just when I was wondering if the author had anything planned for the progression of the plot!While this novel made me think about what I would do if I lost part of my family and about what it might have felt like to deal with a pregnancy in college at nineteen, I never really was drawn into any of the characters or felt like they had much depth to them except for the loss that each of them feels for the people fo...more

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Sep 04, 2008 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you enjoy a quick delve into the nature of grief, love, and family, but don't want to be overwhelmed with vicarious pain, then this is a good pick for you.

The story is told in the first person by a woman looking back after many years on herself as an adolescent, but she uses the present tense for the current events of the story, and the past tense for longer-ago flashback events. I thought this made it feel less like a memoir and gave it more urgency. The author underlines the emotional eleme...more

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Aug 25, 2007 Joy Barnes rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’ve never read Anita Shreve before, but I picked up this book at the Tokyo airport… it was a name I recognized and there were not a lot of English books to chose from. It turned out be a good choice. I enjoyed the book because the story and the characters seemed real. It was if this situation of finding a baby in the snow and plot that follows, could happen to anyone. I found that I was putting myself in the characters’ shoes asking what I would do in the same situation. I don’t want to simplif...more

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Dec 19, 2007 Angel Meyer rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: whomever wants a light read with mild deep thought.

This is a book about loss told through the eyes of a twelve year old. Although, I did find that the "voice" of the twelve year old was caught between speaking in the past and present tenses.

The losses range from the loss of a parent, sibling, child, innocence, trust and childhood. The story begins with a father and daughter walking in the snow and finding a baby freezing to death in a sleeping bag. This will begin the unfolding of the story behind the father and daughter.

I have read Anita Shrev...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Erin by: Julia

This book was a quick read, which I was in dire need of. The plot was interesting enough to keep my attention, although there were points where the author merely mentioned what would come of a certain seemingly insignificant event (i.e. When Nicky and her dad help shovel out the woman's car at the end of the novel and the author merely states: "In the spring, my father will stop at the cottage with the wash outside and find a kind of love there with a woman and her there sons that in years to co...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. While I have been disappointed with the latest installments of Shreve's books, this one came through.

It's a character driven book, told by Nicky, the daughter of Robert Dillon. These are two people who have experienced much pain and tragedy in their lives. Nicky has lost her mother and her baby sister earlier in an accident. Her dad is all she has left. With the discovery in the woods of an abandoned baby, their lives unravel revealing layers that may never have been uncove...more

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May 01, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

What does it take to be a family?

“A cry of an angle nestled by darkness, hidden inside a quite and white snow..” Nicky and her father (Robert Dillon) made a trip to the woods that night. An unwinding moments turns into saving a new born child. They found her, inside the bag, surrounded by blankets full of blood. Is it still alive? Is it still breathing?. nicky was horrified of what she and her father saw. As she pushes her vision to see whats inside those blankets, little eyes, tiny lips and lou...more What does it take to be a family?

“A cry of an angle nestled by darkness, hidden inside a quite and white snow..” Nicky and her father (Robert Dillon) made a trip to the woods that night. An unwinding moments turns into saving a new born child. They found her, inside the bag, surrounded by blankets full of blood. Is it still alive? Is it still breathing?. nicky was horrified of what she and her father saw. As she pushes her vision to see whats inside those blankets, little eyes, tiny lips and loud wail.. It was a baby.

The Immediate response was to rush the baby to the hospital, and give her the medical care she needs. actually, nicky wasn’t sure if it was a she or a he. The doctor came and told them, she was fine —now nicky is sure thats its a girl— just a little bruise, and some of her fingers and toes needs to be cut out. but the baby will survive. At home, nicky can’t stand the thought that she became the ultimate hero today, she just saved a baby! and she’s pretty sure everyone-including her classmates- will talk about it tomorrow at school.

Saving the baby wasn’t easy for them. and meeting the real mother was totally not the thing they want. A week after the tragic night. A woman appeared at their doorstep and claiming that she is the mother of the baby that was found in the woods. Nicky’s father think — What kind of trouble we got ourselves. Charlotte(the mothers name) tells how the incident happened. she was blind sided by her boyfriend, she thought the baby was with her after she gave birth at motel room, but immediately after the crucial bearing of the child, her boyfriend dump the baby in the woods.Then she woke up at her room, saw her boyfriend crying and says, the baby was dead.It was a great story to believe Robert thought.but she’s a father and he knows, charlotte was telling the truth.She stayed with them for a couple of days,but Robert was sure that charlotte can’t be with them forever, so he let her go away, to find a new life. But the police showed and arrested her. Nicky couldn’t swallow the fact that charlotte was being arrested by the police, when all she just came from was to claim her baby. But charlotte already accepted what will going to happen. She broke the law, and almost killed her baby. She thinks, that is what she deserves.

Review:

Anita Shreve not just gave the readers a classical story, but a generous lectures and lessons about family,love,responsibilities and commitments. It catches the heart of every father,child and mother that is suffering from a dysfunctional situation. It does not confuse me that it became a bestseller. Gripping,touching and a multi-tear jerker book. Will keep those eyes wake until the last pages touch your finger tips. applaud for another master piece.
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Aug 17, 2012 Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Finishing either the 4th or 5th Anita Shreve book and I'm just wrecked, as usual. It happens the same way every time so far. I begin reading, the story is set on the East Coast, Vermont, New Hampshire, by the ocean, and I think to myself, hmm, I don't think I can relate to this. The character seems cold, or strange, alien. Then a few page turns and I'm enraptured.

Shreve has a talent that I wish I had, the talent of describing something that is indescribable to most people. Daily moments or fe...more Finishing either the 4th or 5th Anita Shreve book and I'm just wrecked, as usual. It happens the same way every time so far. I begin reading, the story is set on the East Coast, Vermont, New Hampshire, by the ocean, and I think to myself, hmm, I don't think I can relate to this. The character seems cold, or strange, alien. Then a few page turns and I'm enraptured.

Shreve has a talent that I wish I had, the talent of describing something that is indescribable to most people. Daily moments or feelings that sweep by and are forgotten just as fast, taken for granted, missed in the swirl of stronger emotions. She tells a story from the inside out, examining the bones and interiors, describing the mundane from a different perspective, revealing emotions that are so often pressed deep and hidden inside, even to ourselves. She does it in the most loving, accepting way. I always feel incredibly human when I read her stories, and that feels like the most beautiful thing to be in all our flawed, silly glory.

There are always moments where I'm reading along, a person is walking or cooking or cleaning, putting on a shirt or taking one off, and then BOOM, Shreve makes an observation so incisive that it makes my chest feel like it's caving in. It often happens at the end of a chapter, as if she instinctively knew to give the reader some time to process that little exquisite bomb.

Her stories are not incredible or lurid or even very complex usually, but the gift is all in the writing and the emotions of the characters. She expresses what they are feeling, what they are experiencing, how their lives find meaning in the tiny, everyday things. How they love and make love, how love ends and begins, how a tiny little detail can make your heart explode with longing for someone gone. Her characters have a past, and a present that we share, and then they always, ALWAYS have a future. You can tell that she loves them as if they are real people. She cannot bear to leave them hanging, and neither can we. (less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Amy Jacobs rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book I stumbled across in the library. It is not a new book, the publication date is 2004. It is a haunting story about life, death, and coming of age. Nicky Dillon and her father have experienced great loss after an accident kills mother and younger daughter. The father tries to cope by moving to an isolated part of New Hampshire. One day close to Christmas, Nicky and her father are taking a snowshoe walk in the winter snow, and respond to a baby cry. They are stunned to find a newbor...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Kate rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: graduate-school-reading

I recently attended a lecture titled, "In Defense of Excessive Detail" where the professor argued not so much for excessive detail as for precise detail. The modernist form of writing is fine, he said, but to really engage a reader and make them want to read the next sentence, an author must include relevant, precise details. They must engage a reader in the place and with the characters. So much, in writing and developing a plot, can be hinted at through details. Ms. Shreve should have been at...more I recently attended a lecture titled, "In Defense of Excessive Detail" where the professor argued not so much for excessive detail as for precise detail. The modernist form of writing is fine, he said, but to really engage a reader and make them want to read the next sentence, an author must include relevant, precise details. They must engage a reader in the place and with the characters. So much, in writing and developing a plot, can be hinted at through details. Ms. Shreve should have been at the lecture.

I have two main complaints with the book, the first being the narrative voice was too old for a 12 year old girl but I was never told that the book was set as the adult Nicky looking back and if that was the case, more reflection was needed and less, in the moment exposition. My second complaint is that precise details are missing. When we see "A patch of blue plaid through the trees" we are not told if it is caught in the trees, on the ground, how far a distance through the trees. But we are told rather mundane and unnecessary details about what the locals think of people from Massachusetts, the book being set in New Hampshire, when none of the characters is ever from Massachusetts and it has nothing to do with the plot. Many of the unnecessary details are place based, leading me to believe that the author was trying to convince readers of her authority in writing about the place. Others had to do with back story or future story that did nothing to enhance the current story. My theory is that Ms. Shreve has read some "how to write fiction" books that encourage writers to work out every detail of their characters lives, even if those details are not used in the work. My guess is that she did this and did not want that work to go to waste behind the scenes.

The characters themselves are cliche caricatures: the father acting as recluse doesn't shave and wears torn jeans and flannel, the detective has a rough, scarred face and wears a sweater and blazer. All the locals are friendly and talkative without being nosy and the small town is the epitome of small town New England complete with one room school house and village green. (Though I am still unsure how a town that only has enough school children for a one room school house could also afford to support a hospital and police force.......)

The book can be read in one day, so for light, quick diversion reading on an airplane, it is perfect. But if, as a reader, you want substance, a solid grounding in place and characters you believe in and root for, then this is not a book to waste your time reading. (less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit

Another Shreve book. I quite enjoyed this book a lot, for another quick read. The story was simple and engaging and only had a small cast of characters and the minor characters didn't add or take much away. If you didn't pay attention to them, you didn't miss much. Girl and Father live in the middle of nowhere Vermont, having moved there a few years ago after the death of Wife and baby Sister. Father did not take it well and they live a small life. Girl goes to school and is fairly normal consid...more

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May 23, 2011 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-book

I used to love to read this author, and then got soured by her last...well...six books. I found this one in a used book store and decided to give it a try. I was rather pleasantly surprised.

A father and his young daughter live in upstate New Hampshire---its the dead of winter, and they live in a remote location, so they take their snowshoes out and go on walks every evening. As they walk in the woods one night, they hear a strange noise. They think that it might be a wounded animal, and go to i...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Alexandra Graßler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anita Shreve versteht es in ihrem Buch einen mit den ersten Sätzen in ihre Geschichte hineinzuziehen. Die Erzählerin ist im Teenageralter, lebt allein mit ihrem Vater in einem abgeschiedenen, einsam gelegenen Haus und führt dadurch ein etwas bizzares Leben. Als die beiden auf ihrer täglichen Route durch den Schnee unterwegs sind, finden sie ein neugeborenes Kind in der Kälte liegen. Das ist der Beginn einer hoch emotional erzählten Geschichte, die das Leben der Mutter des Findelkindes mit dem de...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

Three word review: It was alright.

More words than that review: I just bought Fortune's Rocks from a charity shop and, half-surprising myself, really enjoyed it. So when I saw a couple more of Anita Shreve's in another charity shop for mere pennies, I decided to pick them up too. This was a slightly weird book for me to be reading now, really: it's set at Christmas in new England; right now it's a very sunny June in the real England. Metaphorically snow everywhere while I was laying in the sun!...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Jayne Bowers rated it 3 of 5 stars

I felt the cold air, saw the falling snow, and tasted the sweet hot chocolate that Nicky loved to drink. That's how powerful the descriptions of events and sensations were. I was there when Nicky and her father found the bright-eyed newborn and with Nicky and Charlotte as they trudged back to the place where the baby had been abandoned. I was with Robert Dillon in the dreary police station as he was being interviewed by Warren...and with Nicky as she waited for her father. The descriptions of sc...more

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Jun 03, 2010 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: I would recommend a different Shreve book

Light on Snow is good, if a little, well...light

This is the second book I've read by Anita Shreve (the first being Eden Close) and I did enjoy both. I read this book in two sittings--it's easy and quick to read. The premise was very good and I thought the plot would be very interesting. It did hold my interest, as I wanted to see how the story finally resolved itself. But it ended up not to be as interesting as I anticipated. The bulk of the text was extremely redundant. Over and over again it s...more

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May 10, 2010 Kelly Hager rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are two aspects of this book. The first is sort of a mystery--Nicky (a 12-year-old girl) and her father are walking in the woods when they find a newborn baby girl in the snow. They take her to the hospital but nobody knows who the mother is and why she left the baby to die. The second part is about the other half of their family--Nicky's mom and baby sister, Clara, who died a few years before in a car accident. Nicky spends a lot of the novel remembering her mom and Clara. It sounds sad (...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

A quick, intense read that left no lingering after-taste in my mouth - like a half-decent table wine, it neither offended nor offered any sublimity to remember. The perspective of the 12-year-old narrator was raw and honest and sensitive and not always wholly likeable - much like a real pre-teen - but her resilience in the face of all the tragedy she'd seen was refreshing.

An excerpt:
'I watched my father run forward in his snowshoes the way one sometimes does in dreams, unable to make the legs mo...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Shannon Winward rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Light on Snow" is about a widower and his daughter who find a baby... in the snow. I thought "well that sounds heart-warming", not realizing that it's also about a dead Mom and a dead baby sister, and contains stories about dead abandoned babies in general. Not exactly light reading for a new Mommy.

The most remarkable thing about the book, to me, was the present-tense narrative ("I walk into the kitchen. My father is standing by the counter, looking at the light on snow"). At first I found it v...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was really a lovely book. The premise is sad: a 12 year old girl and her father who have moved to an isolated house in New Hampshire after the mother and baby sister die in a car crash in New York are walking through the woods between their house and a small nearby motel and find (and save) a just-born baby that has been left in a sleeping bag to die on a winter night. But the story that follows is a beautiful, well-written compelling story of healing, hope, and forgiveness.

One passage real...more This was really a lovely book. The premise is sad: a 12 year old girl and her father who have moved to an isolated house in New Hampshire after the mother and baby sister die in a car crash in New York are walking through the woods between their house and a small nearby motel and find (and save) a just-born baby that has been left in a sleeping bag to die on a winter night. But the story that follows is a beautiful, well-written compelling story of healing, hope, and forgiveness.

One passage really spoke to me because I, too, have often wondered about the twists and turns of our lives that intersect with others' lives, and what would have happened if we'd taken a different path at all of the millions of forks in the road -- big and small.

"And then I begin to think about how my father and I drove north from New York and settled in a town called Shepherd. Charlotte and James drove south from Burlington and found a random motel in Shepherd. Our paths crossed on a single spot in the woods. But what if, I wonder, on the second day of our trip, my father and I had figured out the complicated interchange at White River Junction and gone north as we were supposed to do? What if my father had decided to make a go of it in New York after all? What if my mother had dropped a quarter at the register when she wasy buying a present for her parents at the mall and knelt to retrieve it, thus delaying her two seconds to her car? What if my father had not, as my morther had once told me, walked into the university library one spring morning to read about the Yankees-Orioles game the night before and seen my mother at the circulation desk, studying for a chemistry exam while putting in her work-study hourse, and asked her, on the spur of the moment, how he might get permission to look at a series of rare Jefferson drawings kept in the vault?

I would not exist. My father and mother would not have married. There would have been no Clara.

I want to believe that my father and I were meant to stumble across Baby Doris and give her a chance at life. But now I'm not so sure. I am thinking about accidents and intersecting footsteps as I drift off to sleep."(less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars

(really 2.5 stars)

I received this book as a gift last year but just now got around to reading it. The book is not listed as a YA title, but it should be because it has all the formulaic ingredients: an adolescent narrator, a specific and evocative time and place, and a life-changing incident that marks the boundary between childhood and the next phase in life.

In this case it is the early 1980s, the narrator is 12-year-old Nichole (Nicky) Dillon who lives in rural New Hampshire, having been unwi...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Karah rated it 3 of 5 stars

I grabbed this book from the library right before we left to see my parents over Christmas. Honestly, it only caught my attention because of the title and the type of winter we're having right now (snow, snow, and more snow).

The book takes place in New England where a man and his daughter live on the outskirts of a rural town, nestled in the woods. They moved there after his wife and youngest daughter were killed in a car accident--mostly so he could hide out and retreat from the world. All see...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People dealing with grief, coming of age

Recommended to Valerie by: Nadine Perry

I am glad I didn't base whether to read this book on the reviews here because I think a lot of people didn't "get it," and maybe that's Shreve's failing, but I've observed that, by and large, people don't really understand grief until they experience it first hand, unfortunately. I know that I did not. So I think that people who have experienced the kind of grief that keeps you from getting out of bed will really appreciate this book, and those who have had blissfully uneventful lives will miss...more I am glad I didn't base whether to read this book on the reviews here because I think a lot of people didn't "get it," and maybe that's Shreve's failing, but I've observed that, by and large, people don't really understand grief until they experience it first hand, unfortunately. I know that I did not. So I think that people who have experienced the kind of grief that keeps you from getting out of bed will really appreciate this book, and those who have had blissfully uneventful lives will miss a lot of the subtlety in it.

On the second page of the story, the narrator, Nicky, tells us she's 30 but the events she's relating occur when she is 12. Telling the story in the present tense rather than the past affirms that the Nicky is, at core, the same person she was back when, and yet the events brought on momentous change in her life.

The cover copy tells us the main kernel of the story---Nicky and her dad, who live on the outskirts of a small New Hampshire town, find an abandoned baby in the woods. They rescue her and a couple of weeks later the mother shows up at their house to deal with what happened. We read that Nicky wonders what makes a family. What the cover copy doesn't go into is that the Nicky and her father are walking wounded, like the mother of the abandoned baby. They had lost half their family---Nicky's mother and her baby sister---two years prior to finding the abandoned baby. She and her father are coexisting in an emotionally frozen state, but she is just beginning her life and cannot stay frozen. Finding the baby awakens a fire within both of them because they have control over making something right, after having experienced the total chaos of unexpectedly losing half their family and being hurled into the unknown.

The title of the book is an apt symbol of the main characters' situations. Light causes snow to melt or evaporate, eventually. The light is refracted and the energy spreads through the snow, warming and melting it. Light on snow can also blind you. You can be blinded by grief, too. But it's the snow, not the light, that's blinding. Our own frozen emotional states can cause us to see things harshly and keep us isolated from life-affirming experiences. But the light of truth makes everything right, eventually. Light on snow signals that the bad weather will eventually end. You need to persevere; things work out as they should, and though sometimes the process is more painful than you think you can stand, the spring and summer will come.

Nicky, although grieving the loss of her mother and baby sister, is clearly ready to move on with her twelve-year-old life. We don't know where the father is at; we can only guess from the Nicky's observations, wherein she herself acknowledges there's a lot about her father she doesn't know. Connecting with the baby and the mother stirs a sense of family within her. She becomes an antagonist to her father and challenges his frozen way of seeing the world.

I love how Shreve captured the mysteriousness of womanhood and childbirth to a prepubescent girl. How many of us women remember that state before our hormones took over and we were blissfully ignorant of the power within our bodies? Right at the threshold of her own womanhood, Nicky is imprinted with this woman's story of an unplanned pregnancy. At 12 years old, we are very morally black-and-white (often Nicky has fits about what's right or wrong), and yet Nicky was more ready than her father to consider the idea the mother might not have been at fault for the baby's abandonment, and to show the mother compassion as she tries to face her bad choices. Nicky's need to love and understand her world brings the mother's story to light where the wounds of injustice can begin to heal.

Although I could see where the story was going, it didn't stop me from reading, or dull my pleasure, because Shreve went beyond the story line and captured the moment when grief changes, along with a girl's coming of age in an imperfect world. If I had a daughter, I'd make this required reading for her. It's a book I wish I could have read when I was a teenager.(less)

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May 02, 2011 Stevecrandell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: coping-with-loss, grades-9-and-up

This is a powerful, unsettling book, with dozens of traumatic flares. And yet there’s no excessive melodrama, or straight-to-video moments of shock. The setting is mid-winter rural New Hampshire. Shreve’s elegant spare language is perfect for the brittle emotion she conveys.

12-year-old Nicky and her father are haunted by the car accident that killed Nicky’s mom and her baby sister, two years previous. The tension ratchets up when they are dragged into a case of baby abandonment. Nicky doesn’t a...more

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Nov 29, 2010 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is about a young girl and her dad. They recently lost their mom/wife and sister/daughter in a car accident in new york. They move away to a small town. One day they are snow shoeing and they hear a wail, they think it's just a cat or some other animal. But it ends up being a baby. They grb the baby and go to the hospital to save it. They get questioned by dectives and akll that good stuff. Then a lady comes to their dorr asking to look at some furniture to buy but it ends upo being the...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Women - I don't think this is one guys would like

This was a quick read, but a charming little story. Don't expect a blockbuster plot, don't expect something momentous. Just take it for what it is and you won't be disappointed. It's more of a snapshot of the life of a father and daughter who live in an isolated cabin during a snowstorm and the finding of a baby in the snow which adds some drama and excitement into their lives - something that it sounds like the daughter really needs.

Shreve did an EXCELLENT portrayal of a teenage daughter here....more

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Dec 29, 2008 Katie rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No one

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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About Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). A...more Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit (something that, as a parent, she finds appalling now) to start writing. "I had this panicky sensation that it was now or never."

Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories ("I really could have," she says), she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," won an O. Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa.

Returning to the United States, Shreve was a writer and editor for a number of magazines in New York. Later, when she began her family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine and dozens of others. In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. Since then she has written 12 other novels, among them The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, The Last Time They Met, A Wedding in December, and Body Surfing.

In 1998, Shreve received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. In 1999, she received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey, and The Pilot's Wife became the 25th selection of Oprah's Book Club and an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife, starring Christine Lahti, and in fall 2002, The Weight of Water, starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn, was released in movie theaters.

Still in love with the novel form, Shreve writes only in that genre. "The best analogy I can give to describe writing for me is daydreaming," she says. "A certain amount of craft is brought to bear, but the experience feels very dreamlike."

Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She has two children and three stepchildren, and in the last eight years has made tuition payments to seven colleges and universities.(less)

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Quotes from Light on Snow

“I thought about how one tiny decision can change a life. A decision that takes only a split second to make.” — 61 people liked it

“My mother taught me to knit when I was seven. I forgot about knitting until one day I saw Marion at the counter with hers and confessed that I knew how. Confessed is the right word. In those days, in the early 1980s, knitting was not a hobby a preteen would readily admit to. But Marion, every enthusiastic, pounced upon me and insisted that I show her something I'd made. I did -- a misshapen scarf -- which she priased exravagantly. she lent me a raspberry-colored wool for another project, a hat for myself. Since then I've been knitting pretty continuously. It's addictive and it's soothing, and fora a few minutes anyway, it makes me feel closer to my mother.” — 4 people liked it

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