"An astonishing, vital book about Antarctica, climate change, and motherhood from the author of Rising, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction"--

Elizabeth Rush is the author of The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth and Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Rush’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications from the New York Times to Orion and Guernica. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Howard Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Metcalf Institute. She lives with her husband and son in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University.

Cast of Characters 1

Prologue 5

ACT ONE

Part One | Departures 13

Part Two | Stalled 43

Part Three | First Passage 61

ACT TWO

Part One | Into the Ice 97

Part Two | Islands 119

Part Three | Between the Past and the Future 163

ACT THREE

Part One | Arrival 197

Part Two | Nameless Bay 213

Part Three | Underneath 247

ACT FOUR

Part One | The Quickening 277

Part Two | Holding Season 299

Part Three | Going to Pieces 323

Epilogue 345

Notes 359 Acknowledgments 392