Product Description
THE RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK - 'ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS I HAVE READ FOR A VERY LONG TIME' RICHARD MADELY
'A dazzling tale of romance and survival' (Guardian)
Follow the path to the freezing north. Follow your ambition. Follow your heartFlora Mackie was twelve when she first crossed the Arctic Circle on her father's whaling ship. Now she is returning to the frozen seas as head of her own expedition of exploration.
Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan but his yearning for new horizons leads him to the Arctic as part of a rival expedition. When he and Flora meet there is an instant connection that slowly builds to become an all-consuming love. The affair survives the growing tensions between the two groups. Then, after one last glorious summer on the Greenland coast, Jakob joins his leader on an extended trip into the interior, with devastating results.
The stark beauty of the Arctic, where pack ice can crush a ship like an eggshell, and the empty sweep of the tundra, alternately a snow-muffled wasteland and an unexpectedly gentle meadow, are vividly evoked. Against this backdrop Stef Penney weaves an irresistible love story, a compelling look at the dark side of the golden age of exploration, and a mystery that Flora, returning one last time to the North Pole as an old woman, will finally lay to rest.
Review
Penney works hard to fill her canvas with
colour and conviction (
Sunday Times)
A
terrific and beautifully written yarn that
will make readers yearn to travel and fall in love in a cold climate (
The Times)
It is a tribute to Penney's
superlative descriptive skills that the book's erotic charge is so
startlingly effective, and that
her icy landscapes cast such a lasting, almost hallucinatory spell. This combination is the true rocket fuel of
Under a Pole Star, and what
makes it resonate long after the Snow Queen has divulged her long-held secret (
Guardian)
Curl up with this
stunningly evocative tale about an intrepid young female explorer.
As immersive as it is mesmerising, this is a novel that you won't ever forget (
Heat)
This . . .
powerful drama is played out against a landscape that dominates [Penney's] imagination (
Daily Mail)
A beautifully written tale,
elegant and well-observed, full of
powerful descriptions of a
dazzling landscape (
Sunday Express)
This is
an epic love story set against the forbidding beauty of snow meadows.
A perfect winter read (
Red Magazine)
What has marked Penney out from the start is her ability to
make her extensive historical research come alive (
Sunday Herald)
A suspenseful epic, offering a leitmotif of constant unease . . . impressive (
Guardian)
Unquestionably atmospheric, evocative and . . . rewarding (
Independent on Sunday)
Book Description
An epic historical novel from the author of the Costa-winning
The Tenderness of Wolves, for fans of Donna Tartt, Eowyn Ivey, Sarah Perry and Jessie Burton
From the Back Cover
Flora Mackie was twelve when she first crossed the Arctic Circle on her father's whaling ship. Now she is returning to the frozen seas as the head of her own exploration expedition. Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan, but his yearning for new horizons leads him to the Arctic as part of a rival expedition. But when he and Flora meet, all thoughts of science and exploration give way before a sudden, all-consuming love.
The affair survives the growing tensions between the two groups, but then, after one more glorious summer on the Greenland coast, Jakob joins his leader on an extended trip into the interior. Neither of them ever return.
The stark beauty of the Arctic ocean, where the pack ice can crush a ship like an eggshell, and the empty sweep of the tundra, alternately a snow-muffled wasteland and an unexpectedly gentle meadow, are vividly evoked. Against this backdrop Penney weaves an irresistible love story, a compelling look at the dark side of the golden age of exploration, and a mystery that Flora, returning one la
