The White Darkness

The White Darkness

Author:
Series: Arctic Adventures
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Year: 2018
ASIN: 038554457X
ISBN: 038554457X

Ann Kingman of Books On The Nightstand fame was my guest on episode 161 of the podcast. We discussed favorite gifts for the holiday or any other season and she gushed about this incredible story, calling it a "nonfiction novella." By the bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, this is the story of Henry Worsley who was obsessed with Ernest Shackleton, the Polar explorer in the 19th century who tried to be the first person to reach the South Pole and later tried to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but Worsley was obsessed, partly because he was related to one of Shackleton's men and so he grew up knowing about these adventures. In 2015, Worsley, at the age of 55, he decided that he wanted to cross Antarctica alone on foot. Worsley had a big sled, filled with three hundred pounds of supplies that he strapped around his waist, put on cross country skis, and set off across Antarctica to complete this journey. David Grann gives us an inside look of what Henry Worsley went through on this journey. Worsley kept an audio diary and would radio back his experiences so Grann uses this to great effect. Kingman says you really feel like you're right there. It is a fast read but that's a good thing, otherwise you'd be up for hours because this qualifies as unputdownable. It's a little bit Into Thin Air, a little bit National Geographic. This was her pick for almost anybody you have to bring a gift for, even if you don't know what they might like to read. Chances are there's something in here that anyone would love.

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About the Book

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a powerful true story of adventure and obsession in the Antarctic, lavishly illustrated with color photographs

Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honor and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the nineteenth-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole, and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death, and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history.

Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton’s men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artifacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modeled his military command on Shackleton’s legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world.

In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton’s crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 13, 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.

David Grann tells Worsley’s remarkable story with the intensity and power that have led him to be called “simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today.” Illustrated with more than fifty stunning photographs from Worsley’s and Shackleton’s journeys, The White Darkness is both a gorgeous keepsake volume and a spellbinding story of courage, love, and a man pushing himself to the extremes of human capacity.

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