The Vine: December 18, 2013
There’s a short story I read a few years ago that I cannot get out of my head. It was beautiful and haunting and stuck with me.
I was excited to keep reading the author’s work. But, of course, against my best intentions, in the past few years, I’ve forgotten the name and the author and, honestly, a lot of details about it.
So, like I said, a short story. It would have been within the past maybe 5 so years. I really don’t want to spoil it for you ’cause it was so amazing, but all I can remember are the main plot points and the end. I’m actually going to leave off the small details of ending I remember because it was such a beautiful and haunting piece.
The main protagonist was a teenage boy I believe in a very cold climate (maybe Scandinavia). His little sister falls through the ice when playing. His father tries to save her, even though there was really no chance, and both the father and sister die. They are trapped under the ice and their bodies can’t be recovered until the ice melts. (I think this happened fairly early in the story, so not too much of a spoiler.)
So if you and the Nation can help, I would really love to read it again and continue reading this author’s work.
Thanks,
Jen
Tags: Ask The Readers
Crap, I have read this, and I also don’t remember.
Got it. I think it’s Touch, by Alexi Zentner, which I read in the O Henry Prize stories collection of 2008. It looks like it may have since been made into a novel.