In 1934, the Austrian painter Christiane Ritter travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen to spend a year with her husband, an explorer and researcher. They are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement. At first, Christiane is horrified by the freezing cold, the bleak landscape the lack of equipment and supplies... But as time passes, after encounters with bears and seals, long treks over the ice and months on end of perpetual night, she finds herself falling in love with the Arctic's harsh, otherworldly beauty, gaining a great sense of inner peace and a new appreciation for the sanctity of life.

This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society's expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime.

Intro; Title Page; Contents; Maps; Foreword by Sara Wheeler; 1: The Beckoning Arctic; 2: Outward Bound; 3: First Days in the Wilderness; 4: Mikkl; 5: By Boat into the Interior; 6: The Earth Sinks into Shadow; 7: Alone in the Hut; 8: Peace After the Storm; 9: Night Falls; 10: The Bewitching Polar Night; 11: The Unending Darkness; 12: The Pack Ice and the First Bear; 13: A Dead Land; 14: A Hunter Brings the Mail; 15: A Trip to Reindeerland; 16: The Fight for Vitamins; 17: Spring on the Ice; 18: Spoilt for Europe; Also Available from Pushkin Press; About the Publisher; Copyright