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Northernmost: A Novel (Eide Family Series)

Northernmost: A Novel (Eide Family Series)

Current price: $17.00
Publication Date: July 20th, 2021
Publisher:
Vintage
ISBN:
9780525565352
Pages:
352
Usually received by store in 2-5 days.

Shakespeare wrote, ‘What’s past is prologue.’ Through Geye’s lyrical prose, we are reminded of the importance of where we come from and what we leave for those after us. Northernmost illustrates the power of true adventure — adventure through risking life and limb in the Arctic, adventure through loss, adventure through love, and adventure through the most powerful self-discovery. This book will leave an imprint on your heart.

Kristen Sandstrom, Apostle Islands Booksellers, Bayfield, WI
April 2020 Indie Next List

Description

ONE OF HOUSTON CHRONICLE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

From the acclaimed author of Wintering: a thrilling ode to the spirit of adventure and the vagaries of loss and love.

"A beautiful, big-hearted, triumphant novel.”—Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

In 1897, Odd Einar Eide returns home from a near-death experience in the Arctic only to discover his own funeral underway. His wife, Inger, stunned to see him alive, is slow to warm back up to him, having spent many sleepless nights convinced she had lost both him and their daughter, Thea, who traveled to America two years earlier but has yet to send even a single letter back to them in Hammerfest, their small Norwegian town at the top of the earth.

More than a century later, Greta Nansen has finally begun to admit to herself that her marriage is over. Desperately unhappy and unfulfilled, she makes the decision to follow her husband from their home in Minnesota to Oslo, where he has traveled for work, to end it once and for all. But on impulse, she diverts her travels to Hammerfest: the town of her ancestors, the town where her great-great-grandmother Thea was born—and for some reason never returned to. Braiding together two remarkable stories of love and survival, Northernmost wades into the darkest recesses of the human heart and celebrates the remarkable ability of humans to endure nearly unimaginable trials.

About the Author

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Peter Geye lives there with his family. His previous novels are Safe from the SeaThe Lighthouse Road, and Wintering.

Praise for Northernmost: A Novel (Eide Family Series)

“Engaging and memorable. . . . The language is lyrical and often poetic, almost sounding as if Mary Shelley herself had come back to describe the frozen north.” San Francisco Chronicle 

“Geye imbues isolating bleakness with a perverse beauty . . . Geye captures winter so well in its physical and emotional consequences. That this can leave a reader with a bit of a chill in both body and soul is a considered risk.” Minneapolis Star Tribune 

“An Odyssean tale. . . . Masterful.” Houston Chronicle

“We might as well give Peter Geye the Nobel Prize for winter, or declare him the poet laureate of snow. For no other writer so skillfully captures landscapes of glacier and tundra—both their bleakness and their particular beauty. To read him is to feel the ache of a blizzard on your skin. But in Northernmost, he has also given us an exhilarating tale of adventure and love and heartache and faith, a story of overcoming the most trying ordeals imaginable. Partly a tale of heroic survival, partly a meticulously researched history, and partly an epic romance, Northernmost is, most of all, a beautiful, big-hearted, triumphant novel.” —Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

Northernmost fascinated me with its frozen landscapes and Arctic winters, and it warmed me with the tenderness of its storytelling and humanity of its characters. Peter Geye has written a tremendously satisfying family saga about the tenacity of love amid the unpredictable, ungovernable forces that act on our lives.” —Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle

“A study of marriage and family across time and geographies. . . . Northernmost is rich in history, adventure, and love.” —Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Song Poet

“Peter Geye may well be the William Faulkner of the North Country.” —William Kent Krueger, author of This Tender Land

“A marvel of storytelling.” —Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

“Evocative. . . . [A] literary yet action-packed novel that weaves together two stories, separated by a century.” Historical Novel Society

“Impressive. . . . A memorable, powerful tale of endurance and ancestral connection." Publishers Weekly

“Breathtaking. . . . A beautiful ode to the enduring human spirit.” BookPage (starred review)

"Elegant . . . Geye artfully spans 120 years of the Eide family’s story.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)