Mabel

Mabel was the wife of Jack. She is one of the main characters in the novel. She and Jack came to Alaska to enjoy the peace and quiet and to reconnect with one another. Mabel had no children although she had wanted children desperately. She’d given birth to only one baby who had been stillborn. She’d not even held the baby or known what gender it was. Ten years after the baby was born she still felt guilty because she hadn’t done so. It had been Mabel’s idea to come to Alaska because she believed that being away from children and pregnant women would relieve her feelings of uselessness and failure. Instead, Mabel was depressed to the point of considering suicide when the novel opened.

Mabel’s spirits began to lift when she made friends with Esther from a neighboring homestead. She was even...