Magical Realism in Arctic

About this book

In the isolated settlement of Svalbard near the end of the twentieth century, the ice preserves not just bodies, but memories. Henrik Vestergaard, a disgraced expedition leader exiled by his own failures, lives a solitary existence haunted by the ghosts of his past. Years ago, an anomaly on the deep glacier cost him his reputation, his crew, and his daughter, Sigrid. When an unseasonable thaw begins, the permafrost starts releasing echoes of the past into the present—auroras broadcast forgotten conversations, and snowfall reconstructs vanished people. As time fractures and the boundaries of reality blur, Henrik must navigate a shifting landscape of his own guilt. Guided by Anika Lundqvist, a pragmatic station manager who sees temporal shadows on her radar, and Tariq Al-Fayed, a glaciologist studying the impossible physics of the ice, Henrik ventures back onto the haunted tundra. Guided by the indigenous elder Qillaq, who understands the non-linear spirit of the frost, Henrik must confront the mystery of what truly happened during his doomed expedition before the creeping thaw consumes the town's grip on reality.

Book details

Genres:

Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, Mystery

Language:

en

Published:

2026-04-14

Content rating:

PG-13