Title: The Ice Chorus
Author: Sarah Stonich
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: February 23, 2005
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316815551
Edition: Hard Cover
Acquired: From the author for review

The Ice Chorus has been re-issued by Alma Books and the excerpt is from their website.

After a brief but life-changing holiday affair ends her eighteen-year marriage, Liselle Dupre moves from Toronto to a remote village on the west coast of Ireland. She gradually becomes acquainted with some of the locals, whose wholehearted charm and colourful stories revive her spirits and inspire her to make a documentary about their interwoven tales of romance.

While she explores her fascinating new surroundings, Liselle comes to confront her own tumultuous past and her feelings for Charlie, the Welsh painter who rekindled her passions in Mexico, realizing that to tell the stories of others, she must first reveal her own.

Subtly and beautifully written, The Ice Chorus is a vivid and compassionate investigation of love and memory.

My review: The Ice Chorus by Sarah Stonich is a beautifully written novel about a woman, Lise, who has decided to leave her home in Toronto to move to a small town in Ireland to live near the ocean. To be more precise, an ocean depicted in one of Charlie’s paintings. In this novel, Sarah Stonich, masterfully and with almost a lyrical quality, weaves together fragments of Lise’s life in Toronto, her brief affair with Charlie in Mexico, and her current life in Ireland. As the reader moves from the cooler, slower paced life of Ireland to flashbacks of colourful Mexico, the reader learns more and more about Lise and the choices that have brought her to Ireland. Lise’s move transforms her, making her realise that she must first be true to herself, to tell her own story. It is through Lise’s passion for making documentaries of other people and the places they live that she learns not only whom she was, but also who she has become. The Ice Chorus is so masterfully written; the reader is immediately transported to Ireland and can almost smell the salt in the air or in a flashback, walking the hot sands of Mexico. This novel, so vivid in imagery and rich in detail, makes for a brilliant read of love, how one’s memory can distort what one remembers, and above all family and redemption.

A trailer, interview and an excerpt of The Ice Chorus can be found on Sarah Stonich’s website.

My gratitude to Sarah Stonich sending me a copy of her novel to review.