Regret and Forgiveness

Halverson uses the plight of her characters to provide a lesson on the importance of self-forgiveness and the potential for regret to be transformed into a learning experience. Most of the main characters in All the Winters After are suffering from regret for various reasons, it is one of the fundamental conflicts of the novel. As events unfold, each must learn to overcome their regret, and/or help others to not make the same mistakes.

When we meet Kache, he regrets that he has not been back to Alaska to visit his family in 20 years, but this is just the consequence of a deeper regret. The night before the plane crash that killed his family, he had an argument with his father, Glenn. His last words had been “I hate you” (136). Kache is sure that this quarrel had been a distraction for Glenn the...