The Snow, published in 2004, is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by the British writer Adam Roberts. It is set in the present day and, latterly, the near future. It concerns the appearance of a heavy, prolonged fall of snow, which eventually blankets the earth in a layer of snow literally miles thick.

Plot summary

The heroine of the story, Tira, is a "Londoner" who initially survives the snowfall by staying on the surface of the snow. Once the snow begins to bury all the highest buildings, she meets a worker in the "London underground" and they both survive by sheltering in a high-rise office building and living off supplies that they have cached. The worker later dies after falling off a chair. Tira is then rescued by 'Food Miners' of the New United States of America (now called NUSA). The food miners take her to a new city called 'Liberty'. There she chooses an arranged marriage with a military man and has an affair with a former terrorist.

Eventually she is captured by the 'police' of the city and taken to a camp in the middle of the snow. There she has several encounters with an alien race who, it is suggested, caused the snow and move through it as their natural medium.