The Last Whaler
by Cynthia Reeves
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Pub Date Sep 03 2024 | Archive Date Not set
Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, for Regal House Publishing | Regal House Publishing
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Description
THE LAST WHALER is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive under extreme conditions. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station on Svalbard when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them back to their home in southern Norway. Beyond enduring the Arctic winter’ s twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, and bitter cold as well as Astrid’ s unexpected pregnancy. THE LAST WHALER concerns the impact of humans on pristine environments, the isolation of mental illness, the sustenance of religious faith, and the solace of storytelling.
Trigger warning: this book includes child loss, post-partum depression, and suicide.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"...a dramatic tale of survival at a frigid whaling station in 1937 Norway....This emotionally rich historical will keep readers turning the pages."
—Publishers Weekly
" . . . poignant . . . . a vibrant historical novel in which grief and triumph are set against the severe Arctic wilderness."
—Foreword Reviews, starred review
"This is a hell of a book! Every moment is an urgent conversation between the past and the present, a meditation on the dance between what is ephemeral and what cannot be changed. The landscapes of THE LAST WHALER are at once metaphysical, emotional, unknowable, and all too real. Questions asked of the silent dead mingle with a couple's daily struggles to survive in a frozen world in which darkness reigns. A masterful storyteller, Reeves replicates grief's unique power to demolish clear distinctions between time and place, between love that heals and love that destroys, and in so doing she has written a memorable, necessary tour de force."
—Robin Black, author of Life Drawing and Mrs. Dalloway: Bookmarked
"THE LAST WHALER is gale-force with narrative and unforgettable images....The prose is an overlap of ancient tales and modern insights, a meditation on the fleeting beauty of earthly love and existence, and an inquiry into how we best live with ourselves and other creatures.”
—Helen Klein Ross, author of The Latecomers, What Was Mine, and Making It
"...an accomplished and magnificent novel. Meticulously researched and fully imagined, it is the story of a couple's sojourn at an Arctic whaling station in the late nineteen thirties. Told in two distinct and vibrant voices through letters that dramatize daily threats and accomplishments, it is a gripping tale about a marriage under extreme stress as a man and woman, already grieving for a lost child, separately find their peace in inhospitable conditions.
—Megan Staffel, author of The Exit Coach
"THE LAST WHALER reconciles the boundless beauty of the Arctic with a frozen hellscape of grief in this skillfully rendered story of a couple living and working at a whaling station on Svalbard, and struggling to survive the death of their son. Cynthia Reeves’s writing is riveting, evoking the shadowy boundary between physical and spiritual realms through such details as the lingering stench of trying blubber or the ghostly grace of a wedding gown. As suspenseful as it is profound, Reeves’s novel finds harmony in a perilous landscape that seeks balance between life and death, wonder and danger, joy and sorrow.”
—Elizabeth Mosier, author of Excavating Memory: Archaeology and Home
"THE LAST WHALER reimagines the tropes of Victorian and Romantic novels through a uniquely feminist environmentalist lens, rendering a classic story as timely, contemporary fiction. As Tor Handeland reflects on his years hunting beluga whales in the Svalbard archipelago, the reader travels alongside him to the winter that Astrid, his impetuous wife, demanded to accompany him. The clash between a self-determined woman and the traditional male hierarchies of the whaling trade escalates against the backdrop of formidable, stark beauty as the Arctic winter sets in, stranding Astrid and Tor in the ‘mørketid’—‘the time of darkness.’ The Last Whaler is a raw, beautiful novel you will not soon forget.”
—Tanya Whiton, author of Two for the Road
"THE LAST WHALER is survival epic, nature poem, and mythic history of a land few of us will ever visit. But above all it is a fearless novelistic investigation of the ways in which individuals and entire societies can gradually succumb to madness. Cynthia Reeves’s depiction of a couple struggling to move past the incomprehensible loss of a child as war laps at the borders of their world is clear-eyed and deeply compassionate."
—Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours and The Virgins
"...a deeply moving novel that meditates on the effects of grief and guilt following the loss of a child. The narrative unfolds through two overlapping perspectives: a mother's letters written to the lost child, and the father's responses to the letters ten years later, at the time of the summer solstice. This dual narrative structure reveals how time can be both suspended and cyclical, where personal and historical memory diffuse into the present. The desolate beauty of the remote Arctic shore becomes a powerful metaphor for a struggle to survive inner turmoil and overwhelming grief. Through deep research and luminous prose, Reeves meticulously recreates life in a remote archipelago during the times bracketing World War II, and she offers a richly drawn portrait of resilience in the face of stunning hardship.
—Beth Castrodale, author of The Inhabitants
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781646035083 |
PRICE | $20.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 326 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
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Tor and his wife Astrid try to set things right while grieving the death of their youngest son. Astrid accompanies Tor to the Arctic of Norway to be with him as he and his crew hunt and harvest beluga whales. Hoping a different context will spur them on to find freedom from their grief, the opposite occurs and Tor is required to navigate much more than he anticipated in order to save their marriage when he and Astrid are stranded throughout the dark days of the arctic winter.
"The Last Whaler" is a reflection on grief and mental illness, a dive into human psychology and the gradual decline into madness. Told from the perspectives of both Astrid and Tor, the reader is given glimpses of the same experiences through two different pairs of eyes. It is a beautifully written and sad story, one that will stay with the reader for a long time once it is finished.
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Wow did I get lucky with this one! The cover and title piqued my interest, and I’m so grateful to NetGalley for advancing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. So here goes.
I knew from the first few pages of this book that this was a special one. One in which I would cherish every word and every page would not skim or skip. This book is about a father and husband, who has made a living in the whaling industry in the Arctic region of Svalbard, and has come back to the area from his home in Norway to confront the ghosts of his past. The theme of this book is grief and ultimately renewal, and I would have to say if you cannot handle heavy grief at this moment, I would steer clear of this one. However, as someone who has experienced grief and loss a little more distantly, I found it cathartic. I cried, I grinned, I closed my eyes and imagined the scenes before me. The absolute beauty of this book is not only the excellent writing, but in the books ability to transport you to this frozen landscape of which I previously did not know much about. The amount of research the author must’ve put into this book is incredible. From whaling, to artic flora, to the history of WW2 in the Arctic, and to what life is like living in the farthest reaches of our Earth, the author fascinated and captivated me.
I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I feel so privileged that it crossed my path. As an avid reader, especially of historical fiction, I am extremely picky and this was unlike any book I’ve ever read. It feels like a beautiful, haunting dream that I don’t want to leave. The story was compelling throughout and really did keep me going until the very last page. I cannot wait to see what this author does next.
Five giant stars from me. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻