The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle - Softcover

Wheeler, Sara

  • 3.74 out of 5 stars
    488 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780374533090: The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0374533091 ISBN 13: 9780374533090
Publisher: North Point Press, 2012

Synopsis

A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title

More than a decade ago, Sara Wheeler traveled to Antarctica to understand a continent nearly lost to myth and lore. In the widely acclaimed, bestselling Terra Incognita, she chronicled her quest to find a hidden history buried in Antarctica's extreme surroundings. Now, Wheeler journeys to the opposite pole to create a definitive picture of life on the fringes. In The Magnetic North, she takes full measure of the Arctic: at once the most pristine place on earth and the locus of global warming.

Inspired by the spiraling shape of a reindeer-horn bangle, she travels counterclockwise around the North Pole through the territories belonging to Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, marking the transformations of what once seemed an unchangeable landscape. As she witnesses the mounting pollution concentrated at the pole, Wheeler reckons with the illness of the whole organism of the earth.

Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, shadowing the endless Trans-Alaska Pipeline with a tough Idaho-born outdoorswoman, herding reindeer with the Lapps, and visiting the haunting, deceptively peaceful lands of the Gulag, Wheeler brings the Arctic's many contradictions to life. The Magnetic North is an urgent, beautiful book, rich in dramatic description and vivid reporting. It is a singular, deeply personal portrait of a region growing daily in global importance.

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About the Author

Sara Wheeler is the author of many books of biography and travel, including Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990–2011 and Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile. Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica was an international bestseller that The New York Times described as "gripping, emotional" and "compelling," and The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle was chosen as Book of the Year by Michael Palin and Will Self, among others. Wheeler lives in London.

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Publisher
North Point Press
Publication date
2012
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0374533091
ISBN 13 
9780374533090
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
336
Rating
  • 3.74 out of 5 stars
    488 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780374200138: The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0374200130 ISBN 13:  9780374200138
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011
Hardcover