It is the summer of 1946, the war has ended a few years ago. A novice Lutheran priest, his wife and baby daughter arrive at a windswept island off the coast of Finland.

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In the summer the islanders, a self-sufficient community of fisher folk turned reluctant farmers, are building a health care center, a bridge and the future. But when the winter comes, ice builds itself into all the free spaces there are.

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With each season, the young family’s love of the island and its disparate and scattered inhabitants deepens, and when the winter brings ice, new and precarious links appear.

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Told in spare, simple prose that mirrors the islanders’ unadorned style, Ice is a story as immersive as it is heartrending.