Boundless
Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In 2010, bestselling author Kathleen Winter (Annabel) embarked on a journey across the storied Northwest Passage, among marine scientists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and curious passengers. From Greenland to Baffin Island and all along the passage, Winter bears witness to the new math of the North—where polar bears mates with grizzlies, creating a new hybrid species; where the earth is on the cusp of yielding so much buried treasure that five nations stand poised to claim sovereignty of the land; and where the local Inuit population struggles to navigate the tension between taking part in the new global economy and defending their traditional way of life.
Throughout Winter's journey, she learns from fellow passengers such as Aaju Peter and Bernadette Dean, who teach her about Inuit society (both past and present). She bonds with Nathan Rogers, son of the late Canadian icon Stan Rogers, who died in a plane crash when Nathan was just a young boy. Nathan's quest is to take the route his father never traveled, expect in his beloved song "The Northwest Passage," which he performs both as anthem and lament at sea. And she guides readers through her own personal odyssey, emigrating from England to Canada as a child and discovering both what was lot and what was gained as a result of that journey.
In breathtaking prose charged with vivid descriptions of the land and its people, Kathleen Winter's Boundless is a haunting and powerful homage to the ever–evolving and magnetic power of the North.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Winter's profound and lyrical memoir of a transformative journey, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, begins with a surprising coincidence. A week after taking a friend's advice to always to have a travel bag packed, Winter (Annabel) is offered a place on a ship going through the Northwest Passage. She travels from Toronto to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where the ship begins its journey north through the Davis Strait. At sea, Winter realizes that "there is no line or corner in a wave, no way for cares of the world to hook or snag you." The book is a series of evocative stories centered on Winter's memories, fellow passengers, experiences on the trip, and the subjugation of aboriginal culture by Europeans; through them all, Winter expresses a sense of wonder that she is in "a hiding place of mysteries." At many of the stops, the group walks, encountering the land and wildlife. On each successive walk, Winter increasingly comes to believe that the land can speak to her, and that she can listen and hear with a new sense beyond the usual five. Of all the kindred spirits Winter meets on this extraordinary journey, she writes most powerfully of the land.
