Morgan is second-in-command of the brig Impetus, dispatched in 1852 to the Arctic in search of Franklin's lost expedition. It is late in the year and the ice is closing in when Morgan, ensconced in this wholly masculine world, learns that the ship is carrying a stowaway - a woman. Pregnant with his child.
It is too late to turn back. The child will be born into this vast frozen wilderness. And Morgan must set out on a voyage of deliverance across a bleak expanse as shifting, stubborn and treacherous as human nature itself.
Cormac James was born in Cork, Ireland, and now lives in France. His first novel, Track and Field, was published in 2000.
'A remarkable achievement...A stylish novel, full of music and quiet control.' Colum McCann
'Extraordinary...Reading the book, I recalled the dramatic natural landscape of Jack London and the wild untamed seas of William Golding. Cormac James' writing is ambitious enough to be compared with either.' John Boyne
'Very assured, with a harsh poetic edge...powerful and compelling.' Rose Tremain
