Translated fiction set in Alaska

Submitted: 18th January 2024

Blizzard by Marie Vingtras

Translated fiction set in Alaska sounds good right? This is a short novel at only 155 pages but boy does it pack a punch.

If you want an eerie, slow build read that’s atmospheric and creepy, then this is the one for you!

Map of locations in Blizzard

Translated fiction set in Alaska

BOARDING PASS INFORMATION

Destination : Alaska

Author guide: Marie Vingtras

Genre: translated fiction

Food and drink to accompany: cold meat and ale

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A novel to transport you to rural ALASKA

Map of locations in Blizzard

Stephanie Smee translated this book so hats off to her too for producing a snowy work of art!

January is the coldest month of the year. It’s actually snowing as I write this. And I have just finished Blizzard as the snowflakes hit off the windows. I’m cold. I should probably be reading books set on the beach or something but there’s something about reading a book like this when the weather mimics what’s coming from between the pages.

This book is a debut which makes it all the more remarkable. It was published in France in 2021 and ha won some pretty big awards already. With Stephanie Smee’s translation, I think it’s going to win some more.

The atmosphere and scene setting is off the charts. Bess is looking after a young boy but he’s gone missing. They have been separated in the white wilderness. I immediately wondered why on earth they were out there in the first place and that Bess was not a very good guardian and my heart was in my mouth. Her husband wakes and finds them both gone. He was born on this land so understands it better than Bess who is from sunny California. This is when the weather, landscape and how it shapes us and how we understand it is wonderfully evoked and explored.

Translated fiction set in Alaska

Map of locations in Blizzard

Benedict goes out into the void with Coke who also knows the terrain well. Now, Cole is a bit of an odd bod and has a certain way about him. I was concerned about him. Then I met Freeman who is like Bess, and not from these parts. Some people live with the landscape and others seems to survive it. But why?

The vague setting and the fact the small boy is not named really adds to the sheer isolation and sense of foreboding that starts on page one and lingers throughout. Every character seems to be in a bubble – there is little interaction and as a reader, that is compelling to read. I met each one in turn and didn’t know the links between one and the next. Was what X was saying, the same as what Y told me?

Marie Vingtras is clearly a lyrical and gifted author. Stephanie Smee has woven this in to threads of gold in the English. I now need this in French too for my collection as that will no doubt be another wonderful reading experience.