The Girl With The Glass Feet

Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Unusual winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts, a mainlander who has visited the islands only once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure.

Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart. Love must be paid in precious hours and, as the glass encroaches, time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?

Ali Shaw's debut was a wonderfully written novel that tells how Ida transforms the lives of many in a small Island town.  This is a book that you are better off reading slowly to savor the descriptive prose and originality of the story.  It is also a book that I believe you need to be "in the mood" to read with it's magical creatures and very quirky characters.  This would be perfect for a book club!