Why do so many great authors come out of Newfoundland? It's a very profilic place. This book is sort of post-modern; not a whole lot happens; it's just a series of vignettes that weave together about seemingly unrelated people who are actually tangled up in a web. Think of it as the Robert Altman's Short Cuts of Canadian literature.

What's remarkable about the book isn't the plot (or plots) but the author's style. She has a knack of catching the mundane details, the shape of an egg-cup, a description of the medicine cabinet, the sneer of a rude cashier, and painting them in language that is descriptive yet spare. I could learn a lot from this style. I'll be interested to read this young author's next work.

Lots of people had warned me away from this book, but after reading it, I couldn't understand why. As far as I'm concerned it's got just about everything I'd want... starting with a creepy, mystery. Then there's the forbidden romance intertwined with everything, and finally an absolutely wonderful adventure story.

Like Johnston's earlier novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, this book interposes fictional characters with real people from history. So not only do you get an absolutely readable book, you also get to learn a lot about the history of polar exploration.