My Last Continent : A Novel

"The tent is tight and cramped, not unlike our individual sleeping quarters on the Cormorant – but now, rather than the hum of the ship, we hear the sounds of penguins and waves lapping the bay; rather than the dry heated air, the night is alive with a gelid summer mist"

My Last Continent is the first novel by American author, Midge Raymond. Deb Gardner is a naturalist who studies penguins. Some thirteen years after she first went to Antarctica as part of the Antarctic Penguin Project, she is witness to a terrible shipwreck, the effects of which are far-reaching in her own life.

Antarctica may seem like an unlikely place to fall in love, but when ex-lawyer Keller Sullivan turns up as a kitchen hand, his genuine interest in the penguins that Deb is studying gets under her usual defences. Eventually, they are partners in the research project. But, just like their sea voyages on the Cormorant to the frozen continent, all is not smooth sailing in their love affair.

Deb's first person narrative alternates between the immediate time before the shipwreck, after the shipwreck and many years before the shipwreck, exploring how she came to be an Antarctic researcher and her relationship with Keller, as well as describing the shipwreck and the immediate aftermath.

Raymond manages to incorporate within her story a wealth of information about penguins and their behaviour, the polar landscape, the effects of tourism, and research practices, and does so in a way that makes it interesting and easily assimilated. Her plot is original; her characters are realistic, if a bit quirky, and all the more appealing for their flaws; her descriptive prose is highly evocative: the cold and danger are almost palpable, while the stark beauty of the landscape comes effortlessly to mind.

"…the silence fills my mind like water in a jar – the world goes smooth and clear, with nothing but the whisk of wind around the ice, the splash of a penguin entering the water, the gurgle of waves against the ice. We float along the edge of an iced city, the bergs rising out of the water like skyscrapers. The sea has arched doorways into the sides; the wind has chipped out windows. In the distance, several conical formations tower over the bay, with deep crevasses in their sides, as if enormous claws have slashed through them, drawing blue light instead of blood"

Raymond's debut novel is a moving and thought-provoking story of love and loss, of beauty and danger, of joy and tragedy. It is filled with gorgeous prose, with emotion, and with interesting facts. With this novel, Midge Raymond proves herself a talented author whose further works will be eagerly anticipated.

4.5 stars