"A classic, good old fashioned ghost story"
Oh, I never get tired of reading this book. My copy is very well-thumbed and I can’t tell you how many copies I’ve bought for other people and pressed it into their hands. To me, it’s a perfect story with not a wasted word. Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of Jack Miller who is part of an expedition to a remote, uninhabited bay in the frozen north. The nights of the Arctic Winter are long and harsh and, one by one, Jack’s companions are forced to leave. Finally left by himself as the nights lengthen and his imagination runs riot, Jack feels a creeping unease and wonders if he really is alone. The setting is as chilling as the story and it will have you huddling by your fire while you read. I can’t recommend this enough.
*
One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
A classic, good old fashioned ghost story set in the Arctic in 1937. Evocative, chilling and superbly unsettling, it tells of a meteorological expedition that goes horribly wrong.
A Richard and Judy Autumn Read 2011.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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'An atmospheric ghost story' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible.
And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark...
Dark Matter features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Young Adult Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
Dark Matter is available in Paperback, Hardback
Dark Matter was written by Michelle Paver and published by Sphere an imprint of Little, Brown
Dark Matter has 288 pages
£9.89