October 2011 Book of the Month.

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.

Comparison: Jennifer Egan, Kate Mosse, Judith Lennox
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Synopsis

 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...

Reviews

'This gripping ghost story has moments of horror and beauty'
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Paver's descriptions of the topography are marvellously vivid and add to the sense of menace that suffuses the story'
Joan Smith SUNDAY TIMES

'An atmospheric ghost story that would give Susan Hill a run for her money'
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

About the Author

Michelle Paver was born in Malawi; her father was South African and her mother is Belgian. They moved to England when she was small and she was brought up in Wimbledon, where she still lives. After gaining a first in biochemistry at Oxford she became a lawyer and was until recently a partner of a large City law firm, specialising in patent litigation. She has now given up the law to write full-time. She is the author of Without Charity, A Place in the Hills, The Shadow Catcher and Fever Hill all published by Corgi. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation