Sun at Midnight - Softcover

Thomas, Rosie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007173520 ISBN 13: 9780007173525

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2020

Synopsis

An epic love story and adventure set against the stunning backdrop of Antarctica.

Alice Peel is a geologist. She believes in observation and proof. But now she stands alone on the deck of a rickety Chilean ship as a stark landscape reveals itself. Instead of the familiar measurable world, everything that lies ahead of her is unknown and unpredictable.

Six weeks earlier her life was comfortably unfolding in an Oxford summer. Then, with her relationship suddenly in pieces, she accepted an invitation to join a group working at the end of the earth: Antarctica.

James Rooker is a man on the run. He's been running since his childhood in New Zealand. Now, there is nowhere further to go. He has taken a job working on the same small Antarctic research station.

Alice discovers an ice-blue and silver world, lit by sunlight. Nothing has prepared her for the beauty of it, or the claustrophobia of a tiny base shared with eight men and one other woman. The isolation wipes out everyone's past, and tension crackles in the air. But there is a jolt of recognition between Alice and Rooker that is like nothing she has ever known. And it is in Antartica that she discovers something else that will change her life forever ... if she survives.

About this title

Review:

‘A compelling story juxtaposed with breathtaking descriptions of the landscape.’ Woman and Home

'Gripping romance.' Eve

'The majesty and hostility of the landscape leap off the page.' Daily Mail

‘A good read.’ New Books

Praise for Rosie Thomas:

‘Rosie Thomas writes with beautiful, effortless prose, and shows a rare compassion and a real understanding of the nature of love.’ The Times

‘Honest and absorbing, Rosie Thomas mixes the bitter and the hopeful with the knowledge that the human heart is far more complicated than any rule suggests.’ Mail on Sunday

‘A story full of passion... will keep you reading long after bedtime.’ New Woman

‘Thomas’s novels are beautifully written. This one is a treat.’ Marie Claire

From the Author:

It is always intriguing to catch a glimpse of another world. I love novels that give me a picture of a place I have never visited, a slice of history or an insight into a different culture – the more exotic the better. For me, it’s a very strong element of the delight that utter immersion in a book can bring.
It works the other way round, too. When I travel it’s always with an eye open for a possible setting, an unfamiliar world I can recreate in fiction, and when I discover one there’s always a distinct shiver of recognition. This is what happened when I first saw Antarctica.
It is so beautiful, with an unearthly and forbidding loveliness to which no photograph or film can do justice. It is the harshest place on earth, and the most seductive to the imagination. Almost my first thought was that I wanted to set a novel there. The memory of the heroic narratives of Mawson, Scott and Shackleton was utterly daunting, but - maybe if I wrote a love story? Antarctica would be much more than just a setting. It would be both the place and the passion that drew my lovers together, forged their bond, and then threatened to destroy them.
My practical problem was how to get back there, not as a tourist but to live and work on the ice, however briefly. It is a difficult place to visit. You can’t just turn up and hope for the best.
In the end, I struck lucky. I was invited to spend a month in a tiny research station, alongside a dozen geologists and biologists. Even though they had satellite communications, hot showers, motorised skidoos, they were still pecariously perched on a promontory between the giant glaciers and the icebergs sailing in the bay. They were not so far removed from the old polar heroes.
I followed the scientists, who became my friends. I watched the ice and the mercurial weather, dreamed and worked and wrote, and out of that experience came Sun at Midnight.
I was in love when I wrote it, with a place and a time.
I hope you will enjoy my lovers’ passion and their adventure – and that the book will also give you that precious glimpse of another world.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0007173520
• ISBN 13: 9780007173525
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496