The Ice House

Description

From a writer who's been praised for her 'intelligence, heart, wit' (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls), The Ice House follows the beleaguered MacKinnons as they weather the possible loss of the family business, a serious medical diagnosis and the slings and arrows of familial discord. Johnny MacKinnon is on the verge of losing it all. The ice factory he's run for decades is facing devastating fines following an accident and may have to close. He hasn't spoken to his son since Corran's heroin addiction finally drove Johnny to breaking point. And now, after a collapse on the factory floor, it appears Johnny may have a brain tumour. Johnny's been ordered to take it easy, but in some ways, he thinks, what's left to lose? Witty and heartbreaking, The Ice House is a vibrant portrait of multifaceted, exquisitely human characters that readers will not soon forget.

Laura Lee Smith is the author of the novel Heart of Palm. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, New Stories from the South: The Year's Best and New England Review, amongst other journals. She lives in Florida.

Her tenderness toward her characters and subtle understanding of class differences in American society are reminiscent of such novelists as Richard Russo and Jennifer Egan, but this heartbreaking, heartwarming novel is an original. * Tampa Bay Times * Majestically captures the urgency of reconnecting with a loved one when time seems to be quickly slipping away * Publishers Weekly * While this is a beautiful character-driven novel, the settings are also vividly realized, from the run-down neighborhood of Jacksonville that houses the factory to a remote town in the Scottish Highlands. * Indie Picks Magazine * A tour de force that sweeps readers into a symphony of powerfully drawn characters, all of whom have been wounded in ways that both cripple and embolden them. This novel is an intercontinental family saga and an exploration of blue-collar life, but at its core it's a very good novel that asks us to consider the lengths we'll go to in order to save the things that matter most: a company, a loved one, ourselves. -- Wiley Cash, author of THE LAST BALLAD and A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME