Synopsis:
1914: Aspiring journalist Anton arrives in Vienna where he meets Delphine, a woman of experience and deep secrets. Entranced by the light of first love, Anton comes to life. Until his country declares war on hers.
1927: For Lena, life with her mother in a small town has been cosseted and cold. After a few years of schooling, she encounters a young lawyer who spirits her away to Vienna. However, what she imagines to be love soon crumbles, and she leaves the city behind to take a post at the snow-capped sanatorium, the Schloss Seeblick.
1933: Having lost many friends on the Eastern Front, Anton is sent to write about the mysterious Schloss Seeblick. In this place, on the banks of a silvery lake where the roots of human suffering are laid bare, two people will see each other as if for the first time.
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Sweeping across Europe as it recovers from one war and awaits the coming of another, SNOW COUNTRY is a landmark novel of exquisite yearnings, dreams of youth and the sanctity of hope. In elegant, shimmering prose, Sebastian Faulks has produced an epic love story of timeless resonance.
My Review:
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks. I exhaled a long breath after finishing it and just relived the moments in the story. This is a book I can read over and over again. There is always something so special about Sebastian’s books and I knew I would love Snow Country even before starting it.
It is a quiet book. There is no earth-shaking plot twist or reveal. What it has is people and humanity. Ordinary people living their lives but underneath the calm appearance is individual dreams and turmoils. There is always something tag at your heart string with Sebastian’s books. It is sadness as well as hope. This is a book set in Austria during WWI and the years afterwards. It’s about the love for your country, your parents, your fellow countrymen, your care for others and the people you love. It is not only just a historical fiction about war, it also has romance, revolution, politics and insight to human psychology.
With a little heartache and a little heartbreak I finished Snow Country and I just want to read it all over again. Definitely one of my favourites this year.
Thank you so much Hutchinson Heinemann for gifting me this gorgeous copy and the chance to read Sebastian Faulks’ book in advance. I am forever grateful!
Sissi Reads 