About the Author

Danya Kukafka is a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Girl in Snow is her first novel.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR GIRL IN SNOWBY DANYA KUKAFKA ***NATIONAL BESTSELLER*** *Best Summer Reads of 2017 Selection by * W Magazine * Marie Claire * Elle * goop * Yahoo! * Refinery29 * PureWow * Domino * InStyle.com * Today.com *

"Elegiac and involving... engagingly told... its endearing characters' struggles linger in memory after this affecting work is done."
--Wall Street Journal "No AC? No problem--this icy novel brings the chills...With a knack for writing oh-so-real teenage characters and underline-worthy prose, [Kukafka] weaves a tale of voyeurism and obsession that's impossible to put down."
--WMagazine.com, Top Ten New Books to Read in August "Newcomer Kukafka breathes new life into a common mystery trope...This smart, fast-paced novel is one that readers will be proud to flaunt beachside or elsewhere."
--Library Journal "Kukafka's clever narrative tricks...propel the narrative forward. And while the novel employs a full checklist of teen tropes throughout, from abusive parents to fractured love triangles, there is enough narrative muscle to compel the reader to stick with it until the end."
--Publishers Weekly "Kukafka attempts to subvert preconceptions, principally of what is expected of the thriller genre, but succeeds more pointedly in destabilizing the biases toward illegal immigration, mental illness, law enforcement, and presentations of sexuality sewn into our country's fabric...Kukafka expertly plays with the idealization of the golden girl, with what it means to be seen as female. One of the more surprising aspects of the book is its audacious dissection of this femininity... By weaving these narrative perspectives together...we gain heightened intimacy and understanding of three unique psychologies and are also forced to reckon with our own preconceived notions of beauty, gender, mental ability, and various manifestations of power...The characters in Girl in Snow often rail against the ways they are perceived, but are nevertheless begging to be seen, asking for an audience; they seek a space to express themselves. This duality, of wanting to exist while not wanting to be categorized or wrongly labeled or objectified, is as much the novel's core as the murder mystery itself. Kukafka is shrewd to remind us that as readers, we too are indulging in the spectacle."
--Guernica "One of the more interesting thrillers to come out this summer...more of a subtle, well-developed character study than murder mystery, though there are some good twists when it comes to that, too. In short, it's a great beach read."
--goop "Combining elements of Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family with Dennis Lehane's contemporary classic Mystic River, Danya Kukafka's debut novel is an intricate, seductive murder mystery, in which a single awful crime exposes conflicts and traumas in an entire community...Girl in Snow is not just an impressive debut but one of the best literary mysteries to come along in some time."
--Bookpage "This brooding and intense thriller will plunge readers into a dark world they may not want to enter--but they may be unable to tear themselves free...This unlikely trio of narrators gives readers a different look into the idyllic, small-town life, and how not everything is as it appears on the surface."
--Booklist "Hard to believe this whodunit is from a fist-time author. Think Gillian Flynn of 2017."
--Yahoo! Style "A cool literary mystery to get you through the season's heat."
--Elle.com "Danya Kukafka makes a compelling case for the next Girl on the Train with a fast-paced thriller about a young girl whose body is found on a school playground in the dead of winter, leaving an obsessive loner, a jealous classmate, and a police officer as the prime suspects."
--InStyle.com, 5 Page-Turning Books You Should Read in August

"From its startling opening line right through to its stunning conclusion, Girl in Snow is a perfectly-paced and tautly-plotted thriller. Danya Kukafka's misfit characters are richly drawn, her prose is both elegant and eerie--this is an incredibly accomplished debut."
--Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water "A sensational debut--great characters, mysteries within mysteries, and page-turning pace. Highly recommended."
--Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher novels "An exciting debut from a talented new voice. Girl in Snow is a propulsive mystery set in a suburban community marked by unsettling voyeurism. Danya Kukafka patiently reveals layers of her characters' inner lives--their ugliness and vulnerabilities--in prose that sparkles and wounds. I couldn't put this one down."
--Brit Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Mothers "There is a frightful truth to Danya Kukafka's characterizations, and the mystery at the heart of Girl in Snow is so elegantly constructed. It's an exceptional, unnerving debut novel. I'm already counting the days until her next one."
--Owen King, author of Double Feature and co-author of Sleeping Beauties "Girl in Snow is a haunting, lyrical novel about love, loss, and terror. Reading it felt like entering another world, where things--and people--were not as they at first appeared. The world Kukafka so masterfully creates is suspenseful and electrifying; I was willing to follow her wherever she took me."
--Anton DiSclafani, New York Times bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and The After Party "Kuafka's bewitching first novel spins a spell of mournful confessions around a "Twin Peaks"-like centerpiece. In [her] capable hands, villainy turns out to be everywhere and nowhere, a DNA that could be found under the fingernails of everybody's hands."
--Marisha Pessl, The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

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