“Michael and the Ice Princess” by Mary Mendenhall is coming up soon on our bookstore

Mary Mendenhall is soon publishing her mystical romance novel, Michael and the Ice Princess, with Author Reputation Press.

What started as a short story to her fiancé turned into a manuscript written in longhand by the light of kerosene lamp during her early days in East Africa, while the Rwandan genocide was ranging nearby.  Mendenhall was reading the Western mystics and penned the story as an introduction to their teaching.

This lyric novel follows the story of Michael, a medieval craftsman who stumbles upon a cold and aloof stranger, a woman in beggar dress. However, the Ice Princess is far different from the more allegorical figures of the Snow Queen, North Wind, or the White Witch: her struggle is the very human one of embracing her true identity. 

The book introduces readers to Western mystical thought, in the literary setting of a fairy tale. She describes it as “a perfect bedtime story suitable for older youth and upwards”.  Mendenhall engages her readers in such a way as to allow them ample space to imagine, and she provides no clear-cut key for symbols nor a simple explanation for the book’s mysterious ending. In 1996, the book’s first reviewer called it ‘a memorable tapestry of great power and beauty’.

Anyone who appreciates a blend of medieval spirituality mixed with old-fashioned romance will find Michael and the Ice Princess an engaging read.

This enchanting, classic novella is coming up soon on our online bookstore.