The Red Mitten

By Sarah Birdsall

Memories have a way of coming back, drowning the present with the ghosts of the past. Out of Alaska's little-known lake country comes this darkly elegant tale that is part romance, part mystery, even... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097067127X
• ISBN13: 9780970671271
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: McRoy and Blackburn, Publishers
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 5.9" x 0.6"

Customer Reviews

A Haunting and Tragic Tale

This is a haunting story, a love story, a story I couldn't put down. Katie is back in Lake Hmenof, Alaska with her mother's ashes. She'd been away in Boston for several years. Years ago a couple things happened. Katie's father had an affair with a native girl and Katie had an affair with her brother's lover, who later was claimed by the lake, drowned. These events led to mother and daughter fleeing to the lower 48. But now Katie is back and she has to face her father. She has to face Billy too, the boy she'd loved and betrayed so long ago. And she has to face her haunting memories of Nicky, Billy's brother and the dead lover Katie cannot get out of her head. This is a story of place as well and Sarah Birdsall puts you in it, makes you feel Alaska, makes you taste it, makes you breathe it. She writes like a woman who loves Alaska and she gives you characters you'll remember long after you've finished the story. There's Ray Twigg, the bush pilot and Manny, Katie's stubborn father, and Norma Nicholi, the once upon a time object of Manny's affections and the nurse who loves Billy who still loves Katie and there's always the presence of Nicky and then there's the lake, always the lake. This is a stunning mainstream novel. One I'm glad I read. One I'll read again. One I'll pass on to my friends. It's tragic. It made me cry. It held me captive. I just loved it. Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Great read!

While I have never lived in Alaska, I have visited the Southeast a few times. I dream of someday living there if only for a brief time. Until then, I'll read about Alaska! I enoyed this book immensely. It captured the feel of Alaska....the beauty and the silence. The author created characters to care about and showed how the tragic death of one person can affect the lives of some many, including a whole community. I hope that Sarah Birdsall continues her writing career...I look forward to reading more of her work.

The Characters seem REAL

I have lived in Alaska for a LONG time and I have visited villages; the characters seem real. The way the author describes the village homes and people are so true to life that I felt like I was reading a true story, not a fiction. The author has a "way" to describe feelings, sights, and sounds that made me feel like it was me that was feeling, seeing and hearing it all.

A beautifully written page turner.

There are certain overused stereotypes that describe an exceptional book, and since they do apply here let's dispense with them. The Red Mitten is beautifully written, it's a page turner, a book that you don't want to put down, yet one you don't want to end. Though a work of fiction, Red Mitten is all about northern reality. Authentically Alaskan in every respect, this is a haunting love story that struggles with a deep mystery in which three characters-Katie, Nicky and Billy-play the principal roles. These three, linked by enduring bonds forged in childhood in Western Alaska near Cook Inlet, reach their late teens when a grievous event fractures their lives in profound ways. Birdsall's plot is intricate and even complex, but she makes it easy for us as she deftly guides us along the way, occasionally allowing us subtle insights into the mystery she so carefully weaves. We meet Alaska Natives who populate the village along the great lake Ilmenof and travel in their skiffs and baidarkas; bush pilots in their Cessnas; lodge owners working to generate revenue from sportsfishermen from Outside; and a visiting public health nurse, among others. All bear witness to the vagaries and complications of the human condition that is keenly observed and portrayed by Birdsall with a simplicity of heart and soul against a backdrop of remote living and mercurial weather. Her Alaskan vernacular is impeccable. We know these people. But above all, it is the lyrical language of Red Mitten that propels this book to a superior level. That, and Birdsall's powerfully rich images of the terrain, nature, and the weather. All this calls to mind another book, Cold Mountain, written by Charles Frazier and published in 1997 to universal accolades and the eventual sale of around two million copies. While Frazier filled his poignant love story with compelling images of the South during the Civil War and Birdsall focuses on Alaska, Alaska, Alaska, the beauty of the language and the rich images contained in both books approach a playing field of parity. There is a long journey in both works, and we are the fortunate passengers. The red mitten itself? Like the changing light in Alaska, it is an elusive thing.