Encyclopedia of Snow

by SarahEmilyMiano (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.34

  An amazing debut, a fictional recreation in the form of an encyclopaedia of a relationship based around entries for a history of snow. Touching, inventive and funny, it is very much the start of an auspicious literary career along the lines of a female Julian Barnes. 'My wish is that you will take the key I have given you, which will give you access to my entire life: my book of solutions, all the stories I have known. Take and do with them as you please. I trust you to fill in the blanks - with your stories, with ours - for you alone have full understanding of my soul' This is a bravura first novel, brimming with originality and wit. A lost notebook is discovered, its pages filled with an encyclopaedic array of entries about snow. Leafing through each item in turn, it gradually becomes apparent that the selection is not as haphazard as first glances might suggest. Scientific description, historical accounts and fantastical incidents slowly, teasingly unfold to reveal a series of love-stories. At the heart of these is one particular story, a record of one particular relationship, and it becomes clear by the end of the book that the unnamed editor's work is intended as a love-letter, fastidiously elegant, beautiful and - in places - almost unbearably bleak.