First published 2008
Sym has carried on imaginary conversations with Titus Oates for years. The Antarctic explorer died ninety years ago on Scott's polar expedition, but Sym doesn't care about the age gap. She tells Oates her secrets and dreams about the frozen continent where he met his end. Her uncle Victor shares her Antarctic obsession, perhaps even more intensely. When he offers to take her on an actual expedition to the wilderness she has only read about, Sym sees her greatest wish coming true. But the dream trip becomes something else entirely. The Antarctic tests Sym in ways she never expected. She must fight to survive in conditions that challenge everything she believed about herself and the world. Her relationship with the long dead Oates takes on new meaning as she faces the same brutal landscape that claimed his life. The ice reveals truths that will reshape how she sees her obsessions and her future.
Genres: fiction, adventure, coming-of-age, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Antarctica, Scott's Expedition
Period: 20th-Century
373 pages · Paperback · Perfection Learning