In the end, it’s a novel of forgiveness, redemption, survival, faith and family.Īward-winning author SANDRA DALLAS was dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley, in Vogue Magazine. And it’s through each character’s defining moment in his or her past that the reader understands how each child has become its parent’s purpose for living. Ultimately, each story serves as an allegory to the greater theme of the novel by echoing that fate, chance, and perhaps even divine providence, are all woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Finally, there’s Essie Snowball, born Esther Schnable to conservative Jewish parents, but who now works as a prostitute and hides her child’s parentage from all the world. And Minder Evans, a civil war veteran who considers his cowardice his greatest sin. There’s Grace Foote, who hides secrets and scandal that belies her genteel façade. Joe Cobb, Swandyke’s only black resident, whose love for his daughter Jane forces him to flee Alabama. Whiter Than Snow takes you into the lives of each of these families: There’s Lucy and Dolly Patch-two sisters, long estranged by a shocking betrayal. Just moments after four o’clock, a large split of snow separates from Jubilee Mountain high above the tiny hamlet and hurtles down the rocky slope, enveloping everything in its path including nine young children who are walking home from school.

Whiter Than Snow opens in 1920, on a spring afternoon in Swandyke, a small town near Colorado’s Tenmile Range.

Whiter Than Snow by Sandra Dallas