Icefields - Softcover

Wharton, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099766213 ISBN 13: 9780099766216

Publisher: Vintage, 1997

Synopsis

Trapped in a crevasse on the Arcturus Glacier whilst on an expedition, Edward Byrne notices a mysterious winged figure embedded in the ice wall. The vision shakes his sanity, and after his recovery he returns to a lonely vigil which brings him closer to a defining history of the region.

About this title

Review

Peter Simpson

Telegraph-Journal

"Crosses Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" with Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow," . . . Ironic, brilliant, and unforgettable . . ."

R. W. Sandford

The Jasper Booster Community

"Spare and simple, like the glaciers and frozen peaks he describes, Wharton's writing mirror the beauty of the high alpine landscape. . . . It is not often that you come across a locally written classic."

Larry Watson

Author of "Montana 1948" and "Justice"

""Icefields" is a wonderful novel. Thomas Wharton writes prose that feels simultaneously stripped-down yet lush. He takes an ordinary, realistic place -- that plain, icy mountain -- and makes it exotic, magical, extraordinary."

Joy Gugeler

The Ottawa Citizen

"A stunning debut. . . . Wharton's poetic passages betray a slow flame beneath the cool prose, a raw intense curiosity which fascinates and lays everything bare. His characters are memorably distinct and his portrait of the Rockies is at once exhaustive and engaging."

Susan Taylor Chehak

Author of "Smithereens"

"What an accomplishment. . . . A magical story, told with such cool reserve -- the deceptive simplicity of its language and the multifaceted complexity of time, character, and plot, so much like the ice cathedral that it describes, held me completely in its thrall. . . . I'm haunted by those people and that place."

Mark Glles

The Calgary Herald

"Wharton writes with a prose style as clear as glacial waters, tempered with brilliant imagery and lucid dialogue. . . . If at times the style betrays Wharton's influences -- there are glimpses of Michael Ondaatje, Rudy Wiebe, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and Kristjana Gunnars -- it is never imitative; Wharton is an original writer and "Icefields" is an original novel."

Peter SimpsonTelegraph-Journal"Crosses Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" with Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow," . . . Ironic, brilliant, and unforgettable . . ."

R. W. SandfordThe Jasper Booster Community"Spare and simple, like the glaciers and frozen peaks he describes, Wharton's writing mirror the beauty of the high alpine landscape. . . . It is not often that you come across a locally written classic."

Larry WatsonAuthor of "Montana 1948" and "Justice"""Icefields" is a wonderful novel. Thomas Wharton writes prose that feels simultaneously stripped-down yet lush. He takes an ordinary, realistic place -- that plain, icy mountain -- and makes it exotic, magical, extraordinary."

Joy GugelerThe Ottawa Citizen"A stunning debut. . . . Wharton's poetic passages betray a slow flame beneath the cool prose, a raw intense curiosity which fascinates and lays everything bare. His characters are memorably distinct and his portrait of the Rockies is at once exhaustive and engaging."

About the Author

Thomas Wharton

Thomas Wharton was born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, a northern Canada oil and gas boomtown. He spent much of his youth moving from town to town, and settled for a few years in Jasper, Alberta. The small town so influenced Wharton that he set his debut novel, Icefields, there.

After a variety of jobs -- including hiking guide, bookstore clerk, lab technician, and technical illustrator -- he set his sights on writing. Receiving his M.A. in English from the University of Alberta in 1993, Wharton turned his thesis into his first novel, Icefields. NeWest Press published his debut in 1995 in his native Canada, where it received critical acclaim, and hit local bestseller lists. Washington Square Press, a division of Pocket Books, published the U.S. edition of Icefields on September 9, 1996.

Wharton is currently working on his Ph.D. in English at University of Calgary. He lives with his wife and two small children.

(Click here to read an interview with the author.)

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099766213
• ISBN 13: 9780099766216
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224