North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic - Softcover

Simon, Alvah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076790446X ISBN 13: 9780767904469

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 1999

Synopsis

In June 1994 Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat to explore the hauntingly beautiful world of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying high above the Arctic Circle. Four months later, unexpected events would trap Simon alone on his boat, frozen in ice 100 miles from the nearest settlement, with the long polar night stretching into darkness for months to come.

With his world circumscribed by screaming blizzards and marauding polar bears and his only companion a kitten named Halifax, Simon withstands months of crushing loneliness, sudden blindness, and private demons. Trapped in a boat buried beneath the drifting snow, he struggles through the perpetual darkness toward a spiritual awakening and an understanding of the forces that conspired to bring him there. He emerges five months later a transformed man.

Simon's powerful, triumphant story combines the suspense of Into Thin Air with a crystalline, lyrical prose to explore the hypnotic draw of one of earth's deepest and most dangerous wildernesses.

About this title

Review:

"This is truly an adventure story--an intense and gripping exploration of the extreme reaches of the outer and inner world. It reminds me of Jon Krakauer's work with its blend of suspense and analysis and its sheer ability to communicate why and how people do extraordinary things. Though set in the dark, long Arctic winter, North to the Night is filled with illumination."
-- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"A grand adventure on a vast and awesome scale, wrought onto paper by a writer with a true gift."
--The Washington Times

"The flair of a storyteller and the outlook of a philosopher . . ."
--The Buffalo News

From the Publisher:

Reviews in the national press available to date.
Library Journal: With no daylight and temperatures as low as 60 degrees below zero, Bylot Island in Canada's Northwest Territories, across Baffin Bay from northern Greenland, seems an unlikely place to spend the winter,especially alone in a small boat frozen in the ice. Simon, a wandering American with many nautical miles behind him,and his wife, Diana, a well-travelled New Zealander, planned to share the experience. But when her father's illness called Diana home, Simon stayed on alone with only a cat and occasional curious wildlife for companionship. Reading about so much darkness and ice and the hardship and introspection brought about by them sounds grueling, but Simon can write. When not sharing his inner reflections, he provides interesting observations about the Inuits of the region. The experience, combined with Simon's fine narrative, make this book a good choice for larger public library travel sections. Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon Univ.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 076790446X
• ISBN 13: 9780767904469
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352