I read dozens of books about Greenland and the Arctic, but the works of Norman Hallendy and Lawrence Millman proved the most rigorous, illuminating, and moving.
Without the pivotal guidance of readers for initial drafts, I am lost. For this book, incalculable gratitude to: Anne B. McGrail, Andrew Mozina, Katrin Schumann, Mary E. Mitchell, Betsy Fitzgerald-Campbell, Sandra A. Miller, Linda Werbner, Jac-Lynn Stark, George Ferencik, Ruth Blomquist, and Ray Bachand.
A kind word or vote of confidence powered me through many a long day holed up in my writing studio. Attempting to mention all these supportive friends would certainly result in my overlooking someone, but know I love and appreciate every one of you.
I’m ever grateful for the support of my dear family: Jessica and Alaska Ferencik, Michael and Rebecca Ferencik, Nancy Cummins, Bob Cummins, the Cruder family, and my husband and greatest love, George Ferencik.
A Gallery Books Reading Group Guide
Girl In Ice
Erica Ferencik
This reading group guide for Girl in Ice includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book
Introduction
Valerie Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite Val’s successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother, Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: He willfully ventured unprotected into fifty degrees below zero weather. Val is inconsolable; suicide is the easy conclusion—but she suspects foul play.
When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North, meet this girl, and try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the guise of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Arctic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.
The moment she steps off the plane, fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. The girl, however, is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. But something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? Does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
At the start of the novel, Val is confined to her personal bubble by choice, whereas her father is confined by old age and the inability to take care of himself, let alone travel. We also see Val and her father butt heads over what they each think happened to Andy. How does this family relationship influence Val’s mindset at the beginning of her journey? Is she traveling to get out of her bubble, to find out the truth about Andy’s death, or to prove something to her father? Could it be all three?
In a flashback scene, Andy is adamant about refusing to have children due to a sense of climate change fatalism. He does not want to bring children into what he sees as a doomed world with a failing environment. How does this desire to protect potential children from the dangers of climate change connect to Val’s decision to fly to Greenland to help Sigrid? Do these attitudes from the two siblings toward helpless children seem to match or diverge? Do you share Andy’s concerns about how the world is changing for future generations?
Sigrid responds emphatically to chocolate and communicates via drawing pictures when she doesn’t respond to toys, new clothes, Val’s languages, etc. What are ways we can communicate with one another that don’t involve speech? What would your version of the chocolate bar be if you were in an unfamiliar and scary situation like Sigrid’s?
“The word in Inuktun for climate change translates to ‘a friend acting strangely’—what a personal and beautiful way of describing a relationship to the natural world” （page 24）。 The setting of the Arctic almost acts as its own character throughout Girl in Ice, informing many of the characters’ decisions, impulses, and actions. Discuss each character’s relationship to the Arctic.