cover image The Colors of Snow

The Colors of Snow

Kate Fenton. Doubleday Books, $20 (232pp) ISBN 978-0-385-41702-0

This engaging first novel begs the reader to consume it in one sitting, enjoying the company of Frankie Cleverdon, painter, philosopher and woman of many passions. When she decides to leave London and rent a Yorkshire cottage, she hopes for solitude and inspiration amid the harsh beauty of the English moors. But Frankie discovers more than heart-stopping landscapes and a band of colorful eccentrics: the self-possessed young woman finds love in the unlikely form of the stammering local vicar, who is married, a la Mr. Rochester, to an alluring madwoman harboring dark secrets. Fenton brings a fresh wit and sensibility to this contemporary Jane Eyre , shedding light on the play between reason and romanticism, and the way these opposing forces can twist and shape individual fates. (July)