Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC.

I think I've heard of this before in my public library, but I never actually picked it up until I got approved to read this new edition. The setting, the events that take place, are all malleable for the narrator's sake of possessing the young woman but possessing her in a very specific state of despair. The narrative suggests a globe-trotting adventure against a despotic leader who keeps the woman locked up, but the details change regularly, there's very little sense of time, and you get the sense that the narrator and the villain are one and the same. Though even this is just my opinion; the writing lends itself to many interpretations. I personally enjoyed this sort of unreal narrative, but I can also see how it can frustrate someone who just wants something concrete to latch onto here.

Anna Kavan forever. Read Julia & the Bazooka next, then Asylum Piece, then I am Lazarus. In fact, these should all be back in print like Ice! Thank you for the ARC, and do consider giving Julia & the Bazooka the deluxe publishing it deserves.

If you like Murakami books then you might like this book.

There are only three main characters, a woman, her husband and a man who is in search of her. None are named. The place they live in isn't named and yet the book is captivating (atleast once you cross at least 10pages because, let's be honest, 10 pages in we are just wondering wtf is happening).

Once you know the background of the author, this book makes more sense. She was of a rich background, travelled the world, used to take heroin for her back pain, her son died in a war, she had a mental breakdown and she wrote in the times of WW2.

The pain, actually, the never ending pain showsup quite a bit in the book. If I am to think it in that way then this book is about discovering yourself while the world freezes over.

This is a strange book and I’m not sure I’ll be able to describe it adequately! It’s probably not something I would normally have chosen to read, but this new edition from Pushkin Press caught my eye and as I’ve enjoyed other books from their Classics range, I decided to try it.

Ice was first published in 1967, the last of Anna Kavan’s books to be published before her death a year later. It follows an unnamed narrator who has developed an obsession with a pale young woman with silver-white hair. The girl is also unnamed and described as delicate, glass-like and under the control of her sinister husband, who later becomes known as ‘the Warden’. Our narrator pursues her from place to place, hoping to rescue her from the Warden, occasionally catching up with her and then losing her again. There’s not much more to the plot than that – Christopher Priest in his foreword to this edition calls the novel ‘virtually plotless’ – but the book still has multiple layers that make it an interesting and worthwhile read.

First, there’s the setting. The narrator’s pursuit of the white-haired girl takes place against a backdrop of apocalyptic scenes as the planet rapidly becomes engulfed by ice. I’ve seen this referred to as an allegory of Anna Kavan’s own addiction to heroin, although I don’t know enough about her to comment on that. It could also be seen as a warning of climate change, more relevant than ever today, of course. Either way, there are some beautiful descriptive passages as Kavan writes about the coldness, the glittering snow and the giant walls of ice closing in on the girl, the narrator and the world.

Another notable thing about the novel is the way the reader (and the narrator himself) can never be quite sure of the boundaries between reality and a dreamlike or hallucinatory state. Sometimes the girl will appear seemingly from nowhere, just out of reach or about to be enclosed by the ice – only to disappear again just as suddenly, leaving us wondering whether she was ever really there at all. These shifts in reality occur repeatedly throughout the book, which is very unsettling! The Warden also never feels entirely real, but is always there as a threatening, oppressive presence; the narrator sees himself as trying to free the girl from the other man’s control, but his own infatuation with her gradually begins to feel just as disturbing.

In the foreword, Priest describes the book as ‘slipstream’, which Wikipedia defines as ‘speculative fiction that blends together science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction, or otherwise does not remain within conventional boundaries of genre and narrative’. It’s certainly not a conventional novel and I have to be honest and say that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped to – after the first few appearances and disappearances of the girl, I began to find it repetitive – but it’s also a unique and powerful one. The cold, icy imagery will stay with me for a long time.

Another whacky mind fuck of a book. Just when you start to understand or think you understand whats happening it turns into cluelessness. It literally feels like you're reading a bunch of crazy confusing dreams centred around these characters, I admit I probably didn't like this as much as I probably would have had I not just read another mindfucky book.
Other than that this was a fun book it's a really interesting world and style of writing.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC!!

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this book. Even at the finish I was just unsure what I just read. Turns out maybe this genre isn't for me despite my best efforts!

I was really hoping to enjoy this read. It sounded like it was right up my alley but alas, it was not for me. I found it to be confusing and haphazard, which was obviously intentional but it hopped between what feels like reality and dreaming too often for it to make much sense to my mind.

After I read about the author being a heroin addict, it actually made me think I was reading a bad trip about how the author was stuck in this world of ice, which in my mind became the heroin, and the women that kept being glimpsed, was actually glimpses of herself stuck in her addiction, unable to find a way out, and the man searching for her, was herself. Basically all the characters in the book being iterations of herself. Which if that was intentional, is pretty clever.

If this is your jam, then you may enjoy this.


Thank you to the publishers for sending me a copy of this book to read and review. It is greatly appreciated.

This is an older book that is being reissued. It is a post-apocalyptic dystopia and it reads like a fever dream. Or maybe just a regular dream. It is beautiful in its own right. A man is chasing a woman that he used to love in the hopes of saving her from impending doom. There is ice taking over the world and she seems to have fallen in with a bad individual. I'm not sure which of these scenarios is worse, but the narrators obsession with her is palpable. I definitely thought it was worth reading and it's a fairly short book.

Lost and confused are two godd words describing me when I read this. I had no idea what was going on at most time. It's probably the point with the writing and plot but it's not for me. I need something in the plot och character to hold on to and here it feels a bit like I'm free falling and don't know where or when I will land.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for thos eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All words are my own.

This is a surreal book with many dream sequences, or hallucinations tossed in that make it hard to know what is real or not. Certainly this was purposeful, but make for uncomfortable reading experience.

The story is about an impending world ecological catastrophe covering the plant with artic snow and ice, meanwhile war is breaking out everywhere.

None of the characters or places are named. The narrator has these awful dreams about this woman, sometimes they seem to be waking visions of what happened, but he couldn’t actually know this. He is compelled to find her, save her from the other man (her husband) or the impending emergency. She has no say in her life, by either man. It is an uncomfortable read.

An unnamed man is chasing after an unnamed woman who has kind of an ethereal quality to her. At the same time, the world is changing rapidly into an ice hell due to (nuclear?) war. Humans are fighting and destroying the planet and the man obsessively hunts for this girl.

This type of writing is called slipstream, which is also the phenomenon that happens when you view the world through a warm haze or fumes from a car. The world kind of distorts and wobbles, and it’s hard to make out what is real and not. And boy, does it take you for a trip!

Ice is disturbing and difficult, but in a way that works really well. Following the narrator’s thoughts is kind of like slipping into the mind of someone with a severe split personality disorder. At times our main man seems to not know what’s real himself, but despite all this, he is vividly experiencing and feeling what we see on the page. It’s quite masterful.

I liked the dark aspects of the book. This is the brain of a highly disturbed man with no hope of salvation. It shows.

Due to the nature of the narrator the book is sometimes hard to follow and requires a bit of focus. At the same time, we’re just kind of along for the ride so it’s ok to be that too.

Read if: You like unique books that requires brain activity and allows for several different interpretations.

Don’t read if: You check trigger warning before every book. This is dark and violent at times.

“Ice” – Anna Kavan

“As her fate, she accepted the world of ice, shining, shimmering, dead; she resigned herself to the triumph of glaciers and the death of the world.”

My thanks to @pushkinpress and @netgalley for my copy of this book in exchange for a review.

What a strange, engrossing read this was. Published in 1967, “Ice” is a surreal, apocalyptic novel where nothing is truly certain, save that the end is near. An unnamed narrator arrives in a country that is slowly becoming engulfed in ice, much like the rest of the world. Society is breaking down, as is seemingly the sanity of the narrator, and his only clear goal is to find and rescue a white-haired girl, someone he once loved, now in the clutches of a sinister Warden and his accomplices.

Reality is an unknown quantity in this book. The narrative constantly shifts and melts, no one is reliable in their accounts, and characteristics suddenly appear halfway through the book that only confuse the reader more. It’s a highly metaphorical book, although of what seems to be debated – previous interpretations involving the real life addiction problems of Kavan seem to have given way to those that see issues of male power and abuse, coupled with obvious climate change fears.

For me, it could be a combination of both. I was struck by the line below:

“Six guards brought her to him, bundled up in a soldier’s cloak. These men had been taught a trick of grasping that left no bruises. I had never learnt it, did not see how it was done”.

I think that could be read straight up as a scene or violence, or an allegory of hiding the physical marks of intravenous drugs. Just a thought.

This is a chilling book, one of a style that I wouldn’t normally enjoy, but this really hooked me from the moment I started it. A classic of strange sci-fi, absolutely worth seeking out!

A spooky early literary horror novel set in a near future where the world is in the process of sliding into the next Ice Age and a man's attempt to rescue a young woman as a favor to the local man in charge. Dark, spooky, and the isolation between our characters grow even as they're closer than ever. Absolutely gorgeous read from the end of an author's life and work.

My favorite genre is magical realism, so I do believe this book's slipstream-ness was made for audiences like me. I almost enjoyed this MORE than magical realism because it seemed intent on destroying reality, rather than maintaining it. It was enjoyable trying to figure out what parts were reality and what Kavan was trying to say during the parts that were a destruction of reality. I wish I had read this back in the day in a literature class though, because I think I would have benefited much more from having a teacher help me dig through it more deeply through to it's meaning.

Thank you! I really enjoyed this one. And I always appreciate when publishers bring back books from history.

It’s difficult to place yourself within the opening pages of the novel; I had no idea where I was, who was leading, or their purpose.

The POV is a bit stilted — a lost and confused person, a contrarian who defies logic without a real reason, and a person singularly obsessed with this married “girl”

I skimmed ahead, but ultimately couldn’t see myself adapting to the writing style or enjoying the character’s self referential oddities

Thanks #NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC

2.5/3

I'm afraid the style of this novel was not for me. It felt very Kafka-esque in that it is circuitous in form, never really reaching Amy endings.

The three characters- the narrator, the girl he is trying to save and the man she has left him for spend the entire novel moving from place to place trying to outrun a world in turmoil that is slowly being consumed by ice.

It feels like this novel could just carry on and on without conclusion. However it is thankfully short.

The style of "slipstream" seemed like it was something I would like since the introduction mentions other writers working in this style as JG Ballard , Auster and Angela Carter - three writers that I love. I think the difference for me was the endless revolutions of the same story that I didn't enjoy - man chases girl, man finds girl, man walks away then after a short time does the same thing again.

The part that does work, for me, is the constant threat of ice - of feeling as though the world is collapsing around you leaving you helpless. It is certainly a very claustrophob8c book.

I think if you like Kafka you'll like this.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Pushkin Classics for the advance review copy.

Publishing date: 29.04.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: Man is very obsessed with a woman, hallucinates every other page

My summary is up to interpretation, you might see it differently.
Man wades through a post-apocalyptic urban reality where snow and ice has taken over the entire world. Infrastructure seems to collapse (except for the rich and powerful). While managing this he is also obsessively searching for a woman he once knew. He starts hallucinating her and himself in all kinds of different situations, but never seems to actually get close to her in reality.

I found reading this story very tough. Knowing what was real and what wasn't was very tough. Knowing when and where was nearly impossible. This made my reading experience a little skewed towards the negative sadly.
Both pacing and characters struggled with the same things, knowing who you read about was a little hard.

I did like the atmosphere, it felt cold and unforgiving. In my head I was imagining trudging through snow and ice and feeling hopeless. Gave a real sense of both danger and hope. What I didn't like was the image of the woman. She was fragile, and small, and made of glass, and such a victim, and it got repetitive. Every time she was mentioned, the sandwich list was pulled up of all her attributes. The purpose of this I do not know, but it did annoy me.

This was originally published in 1967, but I think the audience is the same. Adults, all the way. This is an adult read, both in terms of difficulty and themes. Adults that enjoy dystopian and surrealism might highly enjoy this.

I am giving this book 3 stars. Interesting premise, but very hard to process and actually get into. It is a quick and short read, so consider picking up if you feel like working out your brain a little.

It's almost impossible to rate this book. Objectively it could very well be a real achievement in modernist literature, subjectively I hated it. I am indeed glad that books like this one are republished and experienced by a new generation of readers (myself included) - not every book needs to be an easy read after all. However this particular novel did not age that well in my opinion.

This book was incredibly boring and esoteric. Didn't vibe with it whatsoever. I'm not sure what people get out it, honestly.

Ice by Anna Kavan, originally published in 1967, is marketed as a slipstream novel. In it, dreams, nightmare, hallucinations, and memories are intertwined in a Kafkaesque style. The world is being quickly and entirely consumed by an ice age igniting war over resources. The story is told from the unreliable first-person POV of one unnamed male character, who is portrayed as both a foreigner and a soldier with no clear allegiance. The main bulk of the narrative has the narrator searching incessantly for a girl, (not a woman: frequently described as weak, fragile, and immature) who repeatedly runs away from her male captors. The relationship between the girl and the narrator is very strange. He dreams of hurting her, and frequently does when he gets a chance, yet he's consumed by an all-encompassing obsession with her, pursuing her relentlessly despite her asking him to leave her alone. I honestly found the ending the most confusing of all.
Anna Kavan's writing is well suited for fans of Kafka. It is darker, unbelievably so at times, and like with Kafka, I wonder what Kavan would make of the world today.
Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for this ARC!
TW: implied sexual assault