In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic Paperback - 2001
by Valerian Albanov; Introduction by David Roberts; Preface by Jon Krakauer
In 1914, a Russian ship is frozen into the Siberian pack ice. Where does safety lie for the 30 men of her crew? Will the ship provide adequate shelter for the winter? Will their supplies even last that long? Or should they cross hundreds of miles of desolate tundra in the hopes of reaching civilization? Of the 30 members of the crew, only two survived the ordeal. This is a riveting, terrifying account of that quest for survival, originally published in Russia in 1917, that is here available to an English-speaking audience for the first time.
First line
How many weeks and months have gone by since the day I left the Saint Anna and blade farewell to Lieutenant Brusilov!
From the jacket flap
In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy.
For nearly a year and a half, the twenty-five men and one woman aboard the Saint Anna endured terrible hardships and danger as the icebound ship drifted helplessly north. Convinced that the Saint Anna would never free herself from the ice, Albanov and thirteen crewmen left the ship in January 1914, hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them across the frozen sea, hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only a shockingly inaccurate map to guide him, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey of continuous peril, enduring blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, attacks by polar bears and walrus, starvation, sickness, snowblindness, and mutiny. That any of the team survived is a wonder. That Albanov kept a diary of his ninety-day ordeal-a story that Jon Krakauer calls an "astounding, utterly compelling book," and David Roberts calls "as lean and taut as a good thriller"-is nearly miraculous.
First published in Russia in 1917, Albanov's narrative is here translated into English for the first time. Haunting, suspenseful, and told with gripping detail, In the Land of White Death can now rightfully take its place amongthe classic writings of Nansen, Scott, Cherry-Garrard, and Shackleton.
Details
- Title In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
- Author Valerian Albanov; Introduction by David Roberts; Preface by Jon Krakauer
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Expanded
- Pages 288
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Modern Library, New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date September 4, 2001
- Features Index, Maps, Table of Contents
- ISBN 9780679783619 / 067978361X
- Weight 0.51 lbs (0.23 kg)
- Dimensions 8.03 x 5.19 x 0.62 in (20.40 x 13.18 x 1.57 cm)
-
Themes
- Cultural Region: Arctic/Antarctic
- Library of Congress subjects Arctic regions - Discovery and exploration, Brusilov, Georgii Lvovich - Travel - Arctic
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2001030445
- Dewey Decimal Code 919.804
Excerpt
Media reviews
Citations
- Entertainment Weekly, 09/07/2001, Page 157
- Library Journal, 06/01/2000, Page 0
- Library Journal Prepub Alert, 06/01/2000, Page 98
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