Alone and stranded in the Arctic wasteland, would you risk your life to save a stranger or try to get home?

Paul is a father-to-be; traumatised by his past, he's terrified of becoming a father after his own beat him until he was unilaterally deaf. While working as a freelance cameraman in the Arctic, he's caught in a blizzard, separated from his crew, and falls into a chasm. Alone, and waiting for death to come, personal demons plague his mind.

When a young native girl falls into the chasm with him, Paul must learn how to accept responsibility and what it takes to give your life for a child.

FERAL SNOW, while a tense and action-packed story, is an intimate journey between two polar opposites and how love can be forged in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

It has been compared to The Revenant, 127 Hours, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Author Bio:

Mark Lowes is a former teacher, current early childhood educator, and future dad. He lives in Cardiff, Wales, UK, and is sometimes found lamenting over how awful his football team is. While he's not working with deaf children and their families, he's writing dark and twisty fiction.

His writing, so he's told, is a mix between Chuck Palahniuk Josh Malerman and Ernest Hemingway (although Mark retains, all this praise is too much too high). He loves edge-of-your-seat fiction, novels that make you think deeper about the world but will also terrify you and live the world through the protagonist, experiencing every detail. He’s a fan of description, somewhat a lost art nowadays, and has a soft spot for a dark, unreliable narrator.

You can find him on Twitter @StrugglingMJ where he would be excited to hear your views.

Mark is the winner of Litopia's Pop-Up Submissions and of a pitch contest at the Cardiff Book Festival.

Review

Make sure you are reading this under a blanket or somewhere warm as the descriptive power of this book is going to make you chilly! This is a fast paced, Artic based thriller which ensures you are on the edge of your seat right until the final page. It’s brilliant, especially for a debut author, as its narrative is superb, the descriptive quality of the writing is just wow!

The main protagonist in the book is Paul and we find him at the start making his way to the Artic as part of a TV documentary team which is to film the effects that global warming is having on the area. Paul is partly deaf - I kept having images of him being tapped on his shoulder by a polar bear going ‘gotcha!’ We find out his deafness is due to an attack that his father was responsible for. This in turn is making him question whether he can be a good father for his baby which is due to be born any minute. If that isn’t all enough on the first day he manages to fall into a chasm whilst out walking in a blizzard and it’s from this point the book really gets going!

You are shown how Paul copes with being stranded and unable to escape. How he copes with the cold, lack of food and an injury caused by the fall. But then a child also falls into the chasm with him! At times I thought he was hallucinating with the pain etc? Is the child actually real? I also really enjoyed the back and forth with Paul reminiscing about his past with his parents.

The social commentary in ‘Feral Snow’ was spot on. You weren’t lectured about global warming but rather you were shown the devastating impact it was having on the area, increased levels of animals not having a good source, the ice retreating etc. But it also was a look at paternal relationships, why people act as they do and the circle of abuse. At times it was heavy going but showed great levels of empathy. I really enjoyed Paul’s character, well except for one action but hey we aren’t always perfect. I think his character was very well balanced and I loved the resolution to his story.

If you are looking for a great thriller at the moment you don’t need to look any further as ‘Feral Snow’ was excellent. Fast paced, strong narrative and great characters. What more could you want?! Oh yeah a hot beverage whilst drinking it 😂