Terra Nova
A Novel
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A haunting story of love, art, and betrayal, set against the heart-pounding backdrop of Antarctic exploration—from the Boston Globe-bestselling author of The Clover House.
“Ingenious”—New York Times Book Review
The year is 1910, and two Antarctic explorers, Watts and Heywoud, are racing to the South Pole. Back in London, Viola, a photo-journalist, harbors love for them both. In Terra Nova, Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly ushers the reader back and forth between the austere, forbidding, yet intoxicating polar landscape of Antarctica to the bustle of early twentieth century London.
Though anxious for both men, Viola has little time to pine. She is photographing hunger strikers in the suffrage movement, capturing the female nude in challenging and politically powerful ways. As she comes into her own as an artist, she's eager for recognition and to fulfill her ambitions. And then the men return, eager to share news of their triumph.
But in her darkroom, Viola discovers a lie. Watts and Heywoud have doctored their photos of the Pole to fake their success. Viola must now decide whether to betray her husband and her lover, or keep their secret and use their fame to help her pursue her artistic ambitions.
Rich and moving, Terra Nova is a novel that challenges us to consider how love and lies, adventure and art, can intersect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lazaridis (The Clover House) draws inspiration from Robert Falcon Scott's polar expedition of 1912 for this expressive if schematic tale of male camaraderie and female empowerment. In 1910, explorer Edward Heywoud and photographer James Watts, Edward's friend, team up in the race to be the first to reach the South Pole. Meanwhile, in London, Edward's wife, Violet, a photographer and suffragette, exhibits a series of photos documenting suffragettes who were beaten by prison guards while on a hunger strike, their scars and bruises bared while posed like the subjects of classical paintings. As Edward and James approach the Pole, Edward makes a shocking discovery that causes a rift between the two men. Temporarily putting differences aside, they reach the Pole and return home to a hero's welcome. But when Violet develops James's glass plate negatives, she sees something that casts doubt on the men's accomplishment, precipitating a moral crisis. The author pulls off visceral descriptions of the cold, hunger, and drive of the explorers, and of the London women's determination to fight for their rights. Unfortunately, Violet, Edward, and James are essentially one-dimensional characters, and the melodramatic plot developments feel static. When it comes to fictional accounts of the Scott expedition, Beryl Bainbridge's The Birthday Boys still commands the lead.
