The Ice Garden
A Novel
Moira Crone
Ten-year-old Claire adores her brand-new baby sister, but her mother doesn't feel the same. Trapped in the suffocating culture of the small-town South in the early 1960s, Claire's mother tries to cope with her own mental illness and all the expectations placed upon a woman of her class. While Claire's father remains too dazzled by his beautiful wife to recognize the impending dangers, Claire is left largely on her own to save herself and her baby sister--with mesmerizing and shocking consequences.
One of our best American writers, Moira Crone gives us her finest book yet, a story as dazzling and dangerous as ice. The Ice Garden is a heart-stopper. This just may be the most haunting and memorable novel you will ever read. —Lee Smith, author of Guests on Earth and The Last Girls
The Ice Garden is just, hands down, an amazing book. It won't be for everyone--it s the opposite of escapism--but if you're ready for home truths wrapped in some of the best writing this side of Faulkner, pick up The Ice Garden and some snacks. You won't want to come up for air until you're done. —Chris Turner-Neal, Country Roads Magazine
The language and characters . . . burn with an intensity that won t soon be forgotten. . . . Poignant, haunting misery--and hope!--run throughout this spellbinding novel, which at times is monstrous, but never maudlin, as it shows how mental illness can so insidiously affect a family. —Cindy Wolfe Boynton, Minneapolis StarTribune
Ten-year-old Claire McKenzie is the narrator of this wonderful novel, and her far-too-soon passage into adulthood is at the core of this great-hearted but never sentimental book. Moira Crone is an immensely talented writer, and all of her gifts are in full display in The Ice Garden. —Ron Rash, author of Nothing Gold Can Stay and Serena
The pages fly by in The Ice Garden, Moira Crone s powerful new novel that, despite its title, burns with a glowing white heat. Moira Crone's ability to capture feeling in words and to make those words sing is remarkable and memorable. I read the book straight through, shocked, riveted, and in awe. —Kelly Cherry, author of A Kind of Dream: Stories
In 2009, Moira Crone was given the Robert Penn Warren Award from the fellowship of Southern Writers for the body of her work. Calling her a "writer's writer," Allan Gurganus wrote the prize citation, saying, "Moira Crone is a fable maker with a musical ear, a plentitude of nerve, and an epic heart." Her work has been categorized as "Southern gnostic," in recognition of her spiritual, prophetic, and philosophical concerns. She has published three novels and three books of stories. Her shorter pieces have appeared in the New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oxford American, and more than two dozen anthologies. Her first speculative novel, THE NOT YET, was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, an international prize for science fiction paper back of the year in 2013. Her current novel THE ICE GARDEN has been called "a heart stopper."
