Snow on the beach: an Iceland love story to read on the Grand Strand this winter
On the Grand Strand, the sand is gold and the ocean is the friendly kind. On Reynisfjara, the beach at the heart of Desire and the Thaw, the sand is black, the waves are dangerous enough to need warning signs, and a woman who swore she was done with love stands alone at the edge of the sea and screams: “I want to see you again.”
Swifties have a name for that: snow on the beach. Something that should not happen, happening anyway, so beautiful you cannot look away.
Desire and the Thaw, by Ivana Nazareno, is a slow-burn romance about a woman who flies alone to Iceland to get over a relationship that left her “completely empty,” and meets a stranger on the plane who says he is a god. It is the book to bring to Myrtle Beach this winter, when the boardwalk goes quiet and the Atlantic turns the color of the North Atlantic on the page.
What happens on the beach in Desire and the Thaw?
On the beach in Desire and the Thaw, she finally admits what she wants. She walks to Reynisfjara to forget him. “The sea roars furiously over the petrified rocks and slips quietly under the horizon,” she writes. “The black volcanic sand brushes my face, both waking me up and pricking at me at once.”
She lists every reason he is wrong for her: “He has nothing to offer me, he doesn’t love me, he doesn’t even care about me.” Then comes the line that undoes the list: “And yet, I’ve never felt so accepted in my own shadows.”
Earlier, on the same black sand, she writes the poem every romance reader will underline:
I wasn’t remembering him.
I was waiting for him.
Who is the god in Desire and the Thaw?
The god in Desire and the Thaw has no name and no fixed shape. In her dreams, “his body was made of smoke, his eyes of ivory.” Awake, he is worse: he keeps saying the things she always says. He tells her the best storms don’t give warning. He tells her the northern lights slip away more easily the more desperately you look for them.
“So cheesy!” she writes at 3 a.m., watching him pretend to sleep. “But coming from his mouth it sounded good. Too good.” And then the confession every reader knows by heart: “I don’t even know who he is. Or what his name is. And if I asked, I bet he wouldn’t tell me. And I like that.”
He is a “Mastermind,” a trickster who came with a plan, and he gets chapters of his own. In one, he admits what she did to him: “She didn’t see me — she read me, all the way through.” And: “She doesn’t care that I have a thousand shapes and none of them is the real one.”
Is Desire and the Thaw a slow burn?
Desire and the Thaw is a slow burn that is worth the wait. Their first kiss is “more a pact than a caress.” The book is sensual, not explicit, and when the heat finally arrives, it is written in metaphor: “an ancient language spoken in touch and lava,” as she puts it, “capable of melting even the last frost.” That is the thaw.
Where should you read Desire and the Thaw on the Grand Strand?
Read Desire and the Thaw at Myrtle Beach State Park, which protects “1 mile of undeveloped beach in otherwise developed Horry County,” according to South Carolina State Parks. From December through February, the park is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., so a winter afternoon on the pier gives you the Atlantic, the wind and enough light to finish the Reynisfjara chapters.
The photos in this post were taken by Ivana Nazareno in Iceland. They belong to the photo exhibition that closes the novel, and they carry the titles the narrator gives them.
Where can you get Desire and the Thaw?
Desire and the Thaw is out in Kindle and paperback, and the buttons on this page take you to both. There is more about the book at desireandthethaw.com. The Spanish edition, Deseo y Deshielo, lives at deseoydeshielo.com.
Does she see him again? We won’t tell. We will only say that the book ends the way the best trips do: with photographs, and with the feeling that the story is not over.
Ivana Nazareno is an Argentine journalist and writer, and part of the Grand Strand Dispatch team.
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Editor’s Choice ❤Desire and the Thaw
Ivana Nazareno
An unplanned stop in Iceland, a man who sees who she could be, and a love that burns slowly.
Meet the author: one of our own.
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Questions and answers
- What is Desire and the Thaw about?
- Desire and the Thaw, by Ivana Nazareno, follows a woman who flies alone to Iceland after a relationship that left her empty and meets a nameless stranger on the plane who says he is a god. It is told as her diary, with poems, and it is about desire, freedom and no longer trying to fit in.
- Is Desire and the Thaw spicy?
- Desire and the Thaw is sensual, not explicit. It is a slow-burn romance, and its love scenes are written in metaphor.
- Where is Desire and the Thaw set?
- Desire and the Thaw is set in Iceland: Reykjavik, the village of Vik, the black sand beach of Reynisfjara, Selfoss and the Golden Circle.
- Who wrote Desire and the Thaw?
- Ivana Nazareno, an Argentine journalist and writer who is part of the Grand Strand Dispatch team, wrote Desire and the Thaw. The Spanish edition is titled Deseo y Deshielo.
