There’s a lot to learn in this novel about Alaska. Get out your atlas and find where Kachemak Bay is located. Go on the Internet and research The Old Believers, a sect of Russian Orthodox separatists, who left the church in a protest over church reform, settling in the northwestern part of the United States and eventually Alaska.
Now that you have this background, start reading All The Winters After by Sere Prince Halverson. Here you will follow Kache as he returns home to Alaska after a tragedy drove him away almost 20 years ago. He’s come back to see his beloved aging grandmother, Lettie, and his Aunt Snag. He will meet Nadia, a young Russian woman, who has left The Old Believers sect carrying terrifying memories and unseen wounds that have kept her in hiding for a decade. As they begin to get to know each other their affections grow but since the story is set in Alaska, a chilling force unfolds as the story advances. Every character has a secret that they’ve held close to them but need to release in order to mend their hearts.
Halverson writes a mesmerizing story of inner sorrow and strength while capitalizing on the Alaskan setting- a perfect location to highlight the resilience, loneliness and tenacity of the characters. This is an unusual love story which may not end the way you expect.
While we’re discussing Alaska, you might also like Rosamund Lupton’s The Quality of Silence, another excellent fiction title about Alaska that was also published this year. To learn more about that story, here’s a link to my blog post: http://blog.heightslibrary.org/feel-the-chill/
