Description: "THE LAST WHALER is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive under extreme conditions. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them back to their home in southern Norway. Beyond enduring the Arctic winter's twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, and bitter cold as well as Astrid's unexpected pregnancy. THE LAST WHALER concerns the impact of humans on pristine environments, the isolation of mental illness, the sustenance of religious faith, and the solace of storytelling"--
Review Quotes:
Winner of the Indie Reader Discovery Award
Celebrated by the New York Times as a "transporting read [that] celebrates . . . an icy landscape filled with enchantment and danger."
"A dramatic tale of survival at a frigid whaling station in 1937 Norway....This emotionally rich historical will keep readers turning the pages" -- Publishers Weekly Review
"poignant . . . . a vibrant historical novel in which grief and triumph are set against the severe Arctic wilderness."-- Foreword Reviews, starred review and Book of the Day
"Cynthia Reeves's The Last Whaler is an accomplished and magnificent debut. Meticulously researched and fully imagined, it is the story of a couple's sojourn at an Artic whaling station in the late nineteen thirties. Told in two distinct and vibrant voices through letters that dramatize daily threats and accomplishments, it is a gripping tale about a marriage under extreme stress as a man and woman, already grieving for a lost child, separately find their peace in inhospitable conditions." --Megan Staffel, author of The Causative Factor, The Exit Coach, and Lessons in Another Language