Mercy Snow

Finished May 19

Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker

This story takes place in the mid-1990s in a small town in the mountains of New Hampshire called Titan Falls. A great many of the men in the town work at the local paper mill, run for generations by the McAllister family. There is another family that has owned land for generations as well, further along the Androscoggin river, the Snow family. The town thought that Gert Snow, the last of the them had died after going missing in the 1950s, until a distant relative named Pruitt showed up in the 1970s to claim it. When  siblings Mercy, Zeke, and Hannah roll into town in their old RV and pull it onto the family property they've come looking for Pruitt their father after their mother Arlene died. But Pruitt is dead as well, and so the three settle in. They've lived a nomad life, travelling around the country with their mother, Arlene until she died recently. As they discover the death of their father, they settle in, but find that the community feeling is against them from the beginning. Zeke has trouble finding work but Mercy finds a job assisting Hazel Bell at her sheep farm. 

When a teenage outing by bus results in an accident that has one girl dead and the bus driver, Hazel's husband Fergus in bad condition in hospital, the Snow family is soon drawn into the drama, and Mercy's efforts to work against that bring unexpected stirrings of other emotions to the town. 

The McAllisters are also involved as June brings her own feelings along with her husband's plans to work on the Snow family. 

This book reminds me of the books of John Irving, and would be a great read-alike for those that love his stories. The setting is a big part of the story, but the characters are also deftly drawn and have deep backstories. A great read.