Ice Out: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Francesca Bodin has a near-perfect life as an accomplished music teacher and professional flutist living in the Vermont countryside with her husband Ben, and their four-year old daughter, Addie. This ends suddenly when a snowmobiling accident traps the three of them in a frozen lake. Ben, after escaping onto the ice, leaves her and Addie to die.

Francesca believes she sees their dog pull Addie from the lake and drag her into the nearby woods. Desperate to help her daughter, she crawls from the icy waters and follows them. Once she enters the forest, however, she finds herself trapped in a sinister, dream-like world where night never ends, where Addies whereabouts remain hidden from her, and where she encounters a group of women who, like Francesca, have been left to die and now seek to unleash their revenge on those who have harmed them. When they have Ben in their sights, Francesca realizes that if she is ever to escape this nightmare and save her daughter, she must first save the husband who abandoned them.

While Francescas pilgrimage through this bleak landscape is on the surface a desperate attempt to find her daughter and reestablish her life as it was before the accident, it ultimately becomes an allegorical journey that takes her from despair to hope, from grief to acceptance, and from bitterness to forgiveness.

Reviews

2023 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite in Visionary Fiction
2022 Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Visionary
2022 PenCraft Book Awards Runner-Up Winner in Fiction (General)
2022 NYC Big Book Awards Distinguished Favorite in Visionary Fiction
2022 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Visionary
2022 Book Excellence Awards Winner in Fiction
2022 Eric Hofer Book Award Finalist
2022 Literary Titan Book Award Gold Award Winner

[D]eftlyfocuses on redemption and forgiveness . . . an engagingtale about thorny family ties.
Kirkus Reviews

This is a story that will at times chill your bones, but also warm your heart. Susan Speranzas Ice Out is a transformative tale of one womans desperate journey to save the ones she loves, and in the process save herself. Part allegory, the novel explores the inner reaches of our soul, to our moral compass, in order to find the way forward toward forgiveness and self-acceptance. Speranza brilliantly threads the line between utter heartache and redemption in a thrilling novel that lingers long after its last page is turned.
Wm. Anthony Connolly, author of Psalms & Stones and The Smallest Universe

In her tense, riveting thriller Ice Out, Susan Speranza taps into ancient tropes of desire, faith, and fear to weave a tale of lovers Francesca and Ben. Seemingly in possession of the perfect marriage, Francesca certainly feels occasional tension from Ben, but as the pages fly along, the signs grow more foreboding. A wicked, tragic final act at last makes Francesca face the cold, hard facts of her life. But when she finds herself suddenly with real power in her hands, will Francesca choose forgiveness, or the much more tempting revenge Speranzas fine storytelling in Ice Out grabs the reader and simply never lets go.
Tony D'Souza, author of Whiteman and The Konkans

Ice Out is an emotional rollercoaster with an intricate psychological plot. Readers who enjoy metaphysical fiction, thriller, or psychological fiction novels will be drawn into this riveting story.
Literary Titan

A harrowing, mind-bending journey; fans of fast-paced fiction will thoroughly enjoy this book. Highly recommended!
Book Excellence Awards

Author Bio

Susan Speranza was born in New York City, grew up on Long Island, and went to college and for a time worked in Manhattan. For years she enjoyed the hectic pace and cultural amenities of the City, but after a great upheaval, she escaped the urban/suburban jungle and claimed her piece of the country in Vermont, where she has now lived happily for more than twenty years. In between the demands of life, shes authored two other books: The City of Light, a dystopian story about the end of Western civilization, and The Tale of Lucia Grandi, The Early Years, a novel about a dysfunction suburban family. Shes also published numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Along the way, she managed to collect a couple of masters degrees. When she is not writing, she keeps herself busy exhibiting and breeding her champion Pekingese. She lives inChester, VT.