Sophie Walker is back from Africa to nurse her dying mother. Her mother''s Ontario farm borders on "Safari"-a tacky tourist spot now deserted for the winter. From her mother''s window Sophie sees not cows, or horses, but a group of Indian elephants playing gracefully in the snow. Elephant Winter is a novel about the forms of intimacy, from the turbulent love between a mother and daughter to the fulfilling bond between Sophie and the elephants.

Kim Echlin was born in Burlington , Ontario . After completing a doctoral thesis on Ojibway story-telling, she travelled in search of stories through the Marshall Islands , China , France , and Zimbabwe . On her return to Canada she became an arts documentary producer with CBC's The Journal, and a writer for various publications. Her first novel, Elephant Winter, won the TORGI Talking Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the 1997 Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her latest novel is The Disappeared. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband and children.