Spitsbergen
Where the World Forgets to Thaw
€4.40
DOWNLOADABLE E-BOOK
Immediately available to your e-mail
Welcome to Spitsbergen – an Arctic island where nothing grows, everything freezes, and the polar bears outnumber the humans. In Spitsbergen: Where the World Forgets to Thaw, readers are invited on a darkly witty, strangely beautiful, and occasionally morbid journey to one of the planet’s most isolated, surreal, and misunderstood outposts.
From its explosive geologic birth to its accidental Cold War role as a Soviet coal town, Spitsbergen has always existed at the edge of human imagination and endurance. This book explores the island’s eccentric past and peculiar present: whalers who boiled blubber by the barrel, miners who built cities no one asked for, scientists who monitor melting glaciers in a place where you’re not even allowed to die, and the mysterious appeal that keeps drawing people back to the edge of the map.
With a tone that blends travel writing, history, science, and a healthy dose of dark humor, Spitsbergen: Where the World Forgets to Thaw asks why an island so cold and remote has become humanity’s Arctic backup drive – from seed vaults and satellite dishes to geopolitical dramas staged politely in the snow.
Whether you're a fan of polar survival tales, fascinated by the bizarre bureaucracies of forgotten places, or just wondering what happens when people live somewhere the sun disappears for months, this book is your ticket north. Way, way north.
Perfect for readers of Bill Bryson, Mary Roach, and lovers of remote places with inconvenient personalities, this is not just the story of Spitsbergen – it’s the story of what happens when humans try to make sense of a place that doesn’t need us at all.