The Snow Queen

The novel’s heroes, “The Snow Queen,” are brothers Barrett and Tyler—true residents of glamorous New York, lonely and sensitive, not ready to accept losses, forever searching for meaning in life and their calling. They never grew up; like the characters of Andersen’s fairy tales, they wander through an endless labyrinth, trying to save themselves and their loved ones, to betray no one, and to not freeze. A special role belongs to the city itself—a place that looks both like a junk shop and like an undiscovered planet, walked through in every direction and still full of secrets. From the setting, New York gradually becomes a character, and perhaps even the main one.

Michael Cunningham, author of the famous “The Hours” and “A Home at the End of the World,” once again confirms his reputation as one of the best American prose writers and a brilliant heir to modernists. Feeling modernity with subtlety, Cunningham tries to grasp its elusive essence, weaving the past and the future, the everyday and the mystical, into a vivid moment of illumination.