Set in a imaginary land shrouded in mist and snow and populated by strange creatures, this is a gentle love story between a boy with emotional troubles and a girl whose body is metamorphosing into glass. Believable, well drawn characters struggling against their fates in a race against time. Great atmosphere and descriptions - a memorable and unusual tale. Well worth reading.
'Would you believe,' he had said (and back then she had not), 'there are glass bodies here, hidden in the bog water?'
Night mustered in the woods. Shadows lengthened across the path and Ida could barely see where the track ended and root began. The half- moon looked like it was dissolving in the clouds. A bird called out. Leaves rustled among worm-shapes of trunks. Something shook the branches.
She hobbled onwards in the dark eager to be inside, to root out colours in the safety of the cottage. Tomorrow she would look again for Henry Fuwa. But how did you find a recluse in a wilderness of recluses?