Cold Spell

From the moment Ruth Sanders rips the glossy photo of a glacier from a magazine, she believes herself fated by ice. Her fascination bewilders sixteen-year-old Sylvie, unsettled already by her father’s leaving. When Ruth’s obsession grows to encompass a man, she uproots Sylvie and her sister from their small Midwestern town to follow him to Alaska. At the glacier, she and Sylvie tangle with wilderness, religion, a divided community, and one another. As their individual longings braid and cross, the exposed secrets of mother and daughter test their love. In precise and evocative prose, Cold Spell tells the parallel stories of a mother who risks everything to start over and a daughter whose longings threaten to undo them.

Torn from a magazine, a photo of a glacier ignites an obsession in Ruth, a self-sacrificing Midwestern mother. Her fascination with ice culminates in an impulsive decision to make a fresh start by moving her family to Alaska with her new boyfriend, Kenny. This rash plan horrifies sixteen-year-old Sylvie, who hides a secret attraction to Kenny. The realities of the wilderness and tensions within the tiny Alaskan community of Resurrection Valley test Ruth’s resolve. As Kenny’s attention shifts to baiting bears and building an eight-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, she feels diminished, and no matter how she tries to conform, she can’t please Kenny’s strong-willed, religious mother. Ruth also worries over Sylvie, who spends hours staring at the ice, and ten-year-old Anna, who shows a little too much enthusiasm for becoming a Glory Girl at Lena’s church. As their individual longings braid and cross, the exposed secrets of mother and daughter test their love. In precise and evocative prose, Cold Spell tells the parallel stories of a mother who risks everything to start over and a daughter whose longings threaten to undo them.

At age twenty-one, Deb Vanasse was dropped by a bush pilot on a gravel runway in middle of the Alaska wilderness. No roads, no houses, no cars, no people—only a winding brown slough and tundra spread flat as the prairie. She had come not for adventure but to live, an isolating but enriching experience that inspired this novel. Between her mountain home and a glacier-based cabin, she continues to enjoy Alaska’s wild places. The author of more than a dozen books for readers of all ages, she is co-founder of the 49 Alaska Writing Center.