There’s been lots of early buzz for bookseller Eowyn Ivey’s debut, The Snow Child, which officially comes out Feb 1 (We’ve got word from some of our bookstores that they’ve already got it on the shelves). Ivey, who works at Fireside Books in Palmer, Alaska and who we interviewed here about the double life of a bookseller/author, has gotten some hearty endorsements, including a cover blurb that compares the novel to the spawn of Willa Cather and Gabriel García Marquez.
Inklings Bookshop’s Susan Richmond devoted a recent column in The Yakima Herald to the novel. And we heard from Algonquin Books’ Craig Popelars, who says that if he were a bookseller, he’d blurb: “What a stunning debut. It has the magic of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, the poetic nuances of Sylvia Plath and Dylan Thomas, the wild spirit of Jack London, and the deep warmth of a single-malt Scotch. Most of all, it gave me the sense that despite a bleak world, magic can still appear when we least expect it and when we need it most. I remember feeling this way when I heard The Beatles “Blackbird” for the very first time. I can’t think of a more perfect novel to usher in the winter season with. It deserves to melt the hearts of many readers.”
Makes you wanna curl up by the fire with The Snow Child, doesn’t it? Popelars is a marketing man, so you expect this sort of thing from him, but, remember, this isn’t his book! He sent us the blurb because he loved the book a publishing friend had pressed into his hands.
And so it begins, Eowyn. Enjoy your time on the other side of the counter!
“This is a cheerful, erudite and, above all, illuminating book (pun intended) about that golden orb that makes occasional appearances in the Anacortes sky—not just what scientists know about it, but how it has informed and influenced human culture from the dawn of history. Author Richard Cohen, after climbing Mt. Fuji to observe the sunrise, roams freely around such topics as weather, ocean currents, religion, calendars, the keeping of time, depictions of the Sun in art and politics, photosynthesis, skin cancer, poetry and science fiction.”—Arlene, Watermark Book Company, Anacortes, WA. Buy Chasing the Sun from your local indie.
