If, After Snow by Sheila Graham-Smith

Last fall, I was quietly obsessed with Sheila Graham-Smith’s novel The View from Errisbeg, because it was so rich and timeless and such a gloomy and compelling setting. I’m excited to announce that I’m also going to be quietly obsessed with her latest novel, If, After Snow in a very similar but also completely different way this year. I read If, After Snow earlier this month, before going on vacation and leaving my poor review sadly unwritten – but oh boy did I spend lots of time thinking about this novel, and how deeply it moved me.

Carl is dying, and his son Corby has trapped him (in a well-meaning manner, of course) in a nursing home. Carl manages to run away, and head back to Nova Scotia, where his daughter Miriam picks him up and they retreat to their summer cottage to live out Carl’s final months. Writer Kip, with a recent divorce under his belt, his father’s death, and nowhere to retreat but his family’s farm stumbles across them, and a delicate friendship is formed: the three spend their winter talking, meditating, and creating art. Bonds are formed and reformed, as stories about their lives are shared, and as Carl and Miriam separately tell the story of how Miriam and Corby came to be Carl’s children, on a strange day in a grocery store parking lot.

What I took most from If, After Snow is an incredible feeling of peace.

What I took most from If, After Snow is an incredible feeling of peace. This is a tender, beautifully written novel about life and death, and choosing death, as much as you have power over it, in the place and frame of mind that you want. For much of this book, I felt like I was sitting at the kitchen table with Miriam, Carl and Kip, listening to their conversations and stories, and feeling cozy (which was no small feat when it was in the mid-thirties and sunny while I was reading it). It has the same warm qualities as The View from Errisbeg, but is also very different, and much more contemporary in its tone and setting. I had such a pleasant time reading this novel, and I think you will too.

Sheila Graham-Smith was born into a military family in New Brunswick, Canada. Life’s journey has taken her to many places, notably Germany, England, Scotland and the United States. She has travelled widely in each of those countries.
Sheila is now returned to Atlantic Canada where she lives in rural Nova Scotia. Sheila is and insatiable book-buyer and a voracious reader. She continues to write, and, more recently, blog about writing. The View From Errisbeg is her first published novel. Her second is expected in 2025 and her third is a work in progress.

Publisher: Askance Publishing (June 5, 2025)
ISBN: 978-1-738208-37-1

Alison Manley

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Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.