Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon
Yohan, a Korean war refugee, moves to a coastal down in Brazil. . . and then, nothing happens. For the rest of the book. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (although lately I’ve preferred books with more drama) — it’s quiet, and meditative, and when you learn things about the characters, it’s quiet and often without fanfare. Mostly, we don’t learn all that much about them, although we do eventually learn a bit about what everyone has lost. It’s rare to read a book with such a light touch. I read somewhere that the first draft was more than 500 pages (this final version is only about 200). I’m really curious about what was cut. The critical consensus has been that the spareness of it is a virtue, but at times I was a little frustrated by it.
Amy P. Knight 