The Magnetic North Notes from the Arctic Circle [Paperback]

AGlobe and MailBest 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, bestsellingTerra 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. InThe 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 Northis 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.

Sara Wheeleris the author ofToo Close to the Sun: The AudaciousLife and Times of Denys Finch Hatton,Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard,Evia: Travels on an Undiscovered GreekIsland,Travels in a Thin Country: AJourney Through Chile, andTerra Incognita:Travels in Antarctica. She lives in London.

The Magnetic Northoffers a fascinating tour of a disappearing world. Sara Wheeler is an eloquló4