Anna Kavan is becoming known in this country at long last. Her death in 1968 deprived us of further stories, but the posthumous publication of her book Julia and the Bozooka brought her to the attention of reviewers, and hopefully, to a waiting public. Her Ice … is one of those rare books that has achieved an underground reputation. You may not find it in the s-f section, but in the "literary" section. Rightfully, it belongs in both.

It makes use of a standard science-fiction nightmare: the end of the world. But it becomes a study of impending catastrophe in human terms as two men (who may be the same man) pursue a passive, elusive woman. Kavan encloses them in a beautiful, deadly landscape: an encroaching glacial age. The woman, unable to free herself by passion or attachment from the two men who hope to haunt/save her is shown...