After the Snow by S.D. Crockett
March 27tn, 2012 from Macmillan Children's Books
A stunningly beautiful novel about a young boy’s survival during a winter that never ends.
2059. The snow begins to fall. Only the few are prepared. A new ice-age has begun.
Born after the snows, fifteen-year-old straggler kid Willo Blake has never known a life outside hunting and trapping in the hills. When his family mysteriously disappears, leaving him alone on a freezing mountain, Willo sets off into the unknown to find them.
Meanwhile, across Britain, outlawed followers of survivalist John Blovyn are planning an escape to the fabled Islands talked of in a revolutionary book.
When Willo meets an abandoned girl on his trek across the hills, his world collides with outlaws and halfmen on an epic journey that leads him to the new world of the city - a place where the dog spirit inside his head cannot help him.
It is a journey of betrayal and violence. A journey of awakening love and humanity. A journey that changes everything he ever thought he knew.
A few days ago I found myself in the Macmillian catalog and this one stuck out. I don't know if it is the very thought of snow after the horrible summer Texas has had, but this book sounds like something I need to read! I was also intrigued by the interview Crockett gave. Check it:
What was your inspiration for After the Snow?
Well, apart from the unbelievably cold winter during which I was writing—in an unheated house, chopping logs and digging my car out of the snow; I think much of the inspiration for the settings in After the Snow came from my various travels. In my twenties I worked as a timber buyer in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, and that work led to travels in Eastern Europe and Armenia. As soon as I step off the plane in those places it smells like home. It may sound strange to say, when After the Snow is set in Wales, but really the practical dilemmas in the book come directly from places I’ve been, people I’ve lived with, and the hardships I’ve seen endured with grace and capability. I was in Russia not long after the Soviet Union collapsed and I’ve seen society in freefall. Without realizing it at the time I think those experiences led me to dive into After the Snow with real passion. What would western civilization look like with a few tumbles under its belt? What would happen if the things we took for granted disappeared? I wanted to write a gripping story
about that scenario, but hardly felt that I was straying into fantasy in the detail.
What do you want readers to most remember about After the Snow?
We all have the capacity to survive, but in what manner? What do we turn to in those times of
trouble? Those are the questions I would like people to contemplate after reading After the Snow.
How did Willo’s unique voice come to you?
Willo’s voice appeared in those crucial first few paragraphs. After that it just grew along
with his world and the terrible situations that arise. I think his voice is
in all of us. We don’t understand, we try to make good—maybe we find ourselves.
How did you stay warm while writing this novel?
I banked up the fire—and was warmed by hopes of spring.
Yeah, so that is my pick this week! What's yours?
Add to Goodreads
