“Buried in snow, besieged by ice, and hunted by ravenous polar bears, explorer William Barents and his Dutch shipmates, seeking a northern trade route to the Far East, found themselves trapped in an epic battle for survival in the unknown, ice-locked Arctic. Andrea Pitzer’s worthy and superb account keeps us enthralled to the last chilling word.”
----Dean King, nationally bestselling author of Skeletons on the Zahara and The Feud
“Who knew that William Barents’s 16th-century journeys so strongly influenced the great 19th-century arctic expeditions? Andrea Pitzer’s visceral, thrilling account is full of such tantalizing surprises, a delight on every level.”
----Andrea Barrett, National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal
“Four centuries later, the final Barents expedition remains one of the most remarkable survival stories in the annals of Arctic exploration. In Andrea Pitzer's telling, the utter relentlessness of the challenge to stay alive -- the crush of the pack ice closing on frail boats, the other-worldly cold and dark of the Arctic night, and the rooftop clawing of polar bears determined to extract the weakened men huddled below – is never anything less than compelling.”
----Peter Stark, author of Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father