Patricia McKillip, winner of the World Fantasy Award, weaves a web of cobwebs and cold as we follow Rois in her quest to untangle the past, present and future, all held together by the delicate threads of human - and inhuman - relationships.

It is set in a world that could be our past, or an alternative world, and through a gateway into a world without time - or love. The book is about winter, dreams and people, but mostly hope, and what happens when it is gone.

Child-of-the-woods Rois becomes obsessed with the mysterious Corbet Lynn, who appears from a fall of light one morning.She needs to know how it ties in with her mother's early death, her own birth, Corbet's grandfather's death and his father's disappearance, and her sister's decline when Corbet disappears. As Rois fights to bring back the man both she and her sister love, she finds her answers in the dead of winter, but does she also find love?

The tale enthrals as you wonder whether all the threads tie up neatly at the end.

Updated: 08:55 Wednesday, October 29, 2003