Voyage Of The Narwhal
"A luminous work of historical fiction that explores the far reaches of the Arctic and of men's souls." —Denver Post
Capturing a crucial moment in the history of exploration—the mid-nineteenth century romance with the Arctic—Andrea Barrett's compelling novel tells the story of a fateful expedition. Through the eyes of the ship's scholar-naturalist, Erasmus Darwin Wells, we encounter the Narwhal's crew, its commander, and the far-north culture of the Esquimaux. In counterpoint, we meet the women left behind in Philadelphia, explorers only in imagination. Together, those who travel and those who stay weave a web of myth and mystery, finally discovering what they had not sought, the secrets of their own hearts.
Andrea Barrett, winner of the National Book Award in Fiction in 1996 for Ship Fever, has also received a Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and an honorary degree from Union College. She teaches in the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College. The author of four previous novels, Barrett lives in Rochester, New York.