And the only thing that’s keeping me away from it is… more water.It's 1937, and 28-year-old Jack Miller, down on his luck and desperate for opportunity, falls into the chance of a lifetime: being the wireless operator for a scientist expedition heading from London to the high north. The ice was solid beneath my boots – and yet, I thought, a few inches below me, there’s water so cold that if I fell in, I’d be dead within minutes.
And for the first time in my life, I was aware of cold as a menace. Knightley in the 1996 film version of Emma), it’s six hours of gorgeous, immersive, tingles up the back of the neck storytelling.Īccording to the ship’s thermometer, it’s only a couple of degrees below freezing, but it was colder on the ice.
Narrated by the British actor Jeremy Northam (Mr. The audiobook version of this story is perfect if you like to jump-scare yourself with these half-seen from the corner of our eye. Taut and eerie, this is a ghost story that winds chilly tendrils around your heart and slowly ratchets up the tension until its pitch-perfect ending. As time passes, he’s adrift in the vast emptiness of the landscape while simultaneously trapped in the claustrophobia of his quarters. Through Jack’s eyes, we share his wonder at this completely foreign but devastatingly beautiful environment - and we feel his mounting fear. The descriptions of the Arctic scenery and weather are appropriately shivery. Strange things begin to happen, and it’s unclear to Jack - and to us - if there’s something supernatural out there on the ice or if the isolation, fear, and relentless black cold are causing Jack to lose his mind. One by one, Jack’s companions are forced to leave. Surrounded by bracing air and endless sea, Jack is exhilarated and optimistic.īut shortly after they arrive at their destination for the year, tragedy strikes. As the ship bound for Gruhuken, Norway, sails across icy cold waters, he gets to know salty sailors, his expedition mates, and the eight huskies that round out their team. He sets aside his fears and sets sail for adventure. The other four members of the team are amateur explorers from posh families. But from the outset, he has some hesitations. When he’s offered a job as a radio operator on an expedition to the Arctic, he says yes. Our hero Jack is 28 years old, poor, lonely, and in desperate need of a major change. The threatening fog of World War II hangs over the city. In the vein of tales like The Turn of the Screw and The Tell-Tale Heart, this eerie ghost story turns on an essential question: Is our narrator haunted by a supernatural being, or is he slowly losing his connection to reality?
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