book data
5,827 ratings,
3.43
average rating, 642 reviews
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published
November 2nd 2004
by Little Brown and Company
(first published 2004)
details
Hardcover, 368 pages
isbn
031600071X
(isbn13: 9780316000710)
description
A New York Times Bestseller
The events of a December afternoon, during which a father and his daughter find an abandoned infant in the snow, will for
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 7,249)
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avg 3.43
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in July, 2007
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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Read in May, 2009
رمان (نور بر برف) از جمله رمانهايي به حساب ميآيد كه به اهميت انسان و رعايت عواطف آن كه تمام 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 درآي...more
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Read in February, 2008
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Read in March, 2009
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, ...more
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, ...more
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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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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 emoti...more
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 emoti...more
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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 wa...more
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Read in August, 2007
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...more
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...more
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Read in March, 2008
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 year...more
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Read in March, 2005
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...more
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...more
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Read in April, 2009
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.
On...more
On...more
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Read in January, 2010
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in November, 2008
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 ...more
Shreve did an EXCELLENT portrayal of a teenage ...more
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Read in December, 2008
recommends it for:
No one
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Read in March, 2009
I never know what to expect with Anita Shreve. I either love her books or hate them. There’s no in between and I can’t identify any rhyme or reason for the different reactions. If I had to try to put my finger one, however, I think it would come down to the characters. I can get much more into her stories when I feel like the characters are realistic or like I can empathize with them. I’ve read other reviews for this book, and it appears most people are not fond of the characters. Oddly, I...more
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Read in January, 2009
I'm not sure how to rate this... this was a quick, easy read. I thought Shreve did a good job with the narration, as the narrator is a 30 year old talking about her 12 year old self. You feel so bad for this girl, as she has been through so much, and her dad is dealing with his own grief over his wife and other child whom were killed years prior. The girl clearly wants a female figure in her life, and clings to the first female who walks in the door... who happens to be the mother of the baby ab...more
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Read in September, 2009
Nicky and her father have come to live in an isolated home in New Hampshire following the deaths of her mother and little sister in an automobile accident. They eke out a bare existence there with minimal contact with outsiders. One day while hiking on their hilly, forested property, they discover a barely living newborn baby girl, wrapped in a sleeping bag in the snow. This book traces the events following this horrifying event.
Shreve has adeptly drawn the grieving and pain that fat...more
Shreve has adeptly drawn the grieving and pain that fat...more
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Read in September, 2009
Nicky Dillon and her widowed father Robert find a newborn baby wrapped in a sleeping bag in the snow in the woods that surround their secluded home. They save the baby's life by rushing her to the hospital, and they think the story is over. However, when a young woman appears on their doorstep, the story really gets going. A series of flashbacks reveals the tragic death of Nicky's mother and infant sister in a car wreck two years previous, and Robert's increasing withdrawal from the world. This ...more
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Read in February, 2010
As always, Shreve is a fast read with interesting story lines. This one is definitely not her best work but I like her writing style. She never overdoes it with details and she uses flashback extremely effectively. This story is about a father and daughter who have moved to a secluded home in the woods after losing part of their family in a car accident. While snow shoeing one afternoon they come upon an abandoned newborn baby in the snow. Eventually the story comes out and the mother of the bab...more
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Read in June, 2009
A coming-of-age story with lots of complications - Nicky is on the cusp of womanhood, but really left her childhood behind two years earlier when her mother and baby sister died in a car accident, and her father was so devastated that he moved them away from everyone and everything she knew. They've just been drifting along as the remaining half of a family, until one day on their daily walk in the woods they discover an abandoned baby so newly-born she still has an attached umbilical cord. Sudd...more
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