BLIZZARD

Desperate efforts to find a woman and child who have disappeared into an Alaskan blizzard bring forth memories of past tragedies.

When 10-year-old Thomas’ hand slips from the grip of his live-in caretaker, Bess, as she bends to re-tie her shoe during a devastating snowstorm, one to which she ill-advisedly exposed him and herself, he is quickly swallowed up by the elements. His chances of survival are slim and hers aren't much better. A mystery woman from California whom the locals think is half-crazy, Bess was brought to Alaska by the boy's uncle Benedict after the precocious Thomas' father (also named Thomas) abandoned him and his mother died. Reluctantly, Benedict ventures out into the storm to find Thomas and Bess, accompanied by neighbor Cole, a misogynistic drunk. "A kid and a pretty woman lost in a blizzard, though?" muses Benedict. "Best as I can recollect, no such thing's happened before." The deeper they penetrate the blizzard, the more violent memories surface. Everyone, including Freeman, a displaced Black Vietnam veteran who lives nearby, carries trauma around with them, including the murder of a sibling and a patricidal killing. There are frequent references to ghosts. Gothic in tone and Western in spirit, French writer Vingtras' first novel, a bestseller in France that won the Booksellers’ Prize there for the year's best novel, is short on smiles and long on vitriol and recrimination. Ultimately, the flashbacks, narrated by the characters, outbalance the physical descriptions of the storm, which never carries the threat it should. But the book commands the reader's attention until the end.

A chilly tale marked by twisted fates.