Purpose of a Snowflake

On snowy Christmas 1957, during the coldest winds of the Cold War, an eleven-year-old American girl, with a "nonstandard" face and fascination with Martians, wishes for a miracle: to love and to be loved. Since there is no shooting star to wish upon, she wishes on the orbiting Russian spacecraft, Sputnik-is this a sign her love will be otherworldly?

"If a love story isn't magical, it isn't a love story at all but a like story. I want to write a love story." ~Sidereus Sterling