North to the Night

In June 1994 Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat to explore the hauntingly beautiful world of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying high above the Arctic Circle. Four months later, unexpected events would trap Simon alone on his boat, frozen in ice 100 miles from the nearest settlement, with the long polar night stretching into darkness for months to come. With his world circumscribed by screaming blizzards and marauding polar bears and his only companion a kitten named Halifax, Simon withstands months of crushing loneliness, sudden blindness, and private demons. Trapped in a boat buried beneath the drifting snow, he struggles through the perpetual darkness toward a spiritual awakening and an understanding of the forces that conspired to bring him there. He emerges five months later a transformed man. Simon's powerful, triumphant story combines the suspense of Into Thin Air with a crystalline, lyrical prose to explore the hypnotic draw of one of earth's deepest and most dangerous wildernesses.

About the Author

Alvah Simon spent thirteen years sailing the world, finding adventure in Borneo's jungles, Africa's deserts, and Cape Horn's ship graveyards. For their Arctic journey, he and his wife, Diana, received the 1997 Cruising World Outstanding Seamanship Award. The Simons live aboard the Roger Henry.

Praise

Praise"This is truly an adventure story--an intense and gripping exploration of the extreme reaches of the outer and inner world. It reminds me of Jon Krakauer's work with its blend of suspense and analysis and its sheer ability to communicate why and how people do extraordinary things. Though set in the dark, long Arctic winter, North to the Night is filled with illumination."-- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature"A grand adventure on a vast and awesome scale, wrought onto paper by a writer with a true gift."--The Washington Times"The flair of a storyteller and the outlook of a philosopher . . ." --The Buffalo News

Read an excerpt

From The Publisher:

In June 1994 Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat, the Roger Henry, to explore the hauntingly beautiful world of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying within one of the Earth's most remote regions -- the Arctic Circle. North to the Night recounts this remarkable, death-defying voyage, which proved to be as much a spiritual journey as an oceanic one.

Despite the careful preparation and ingenuity that had seen the Simons through a series of ordeals four months into their journey, Alvah and Diana found themselves trapped in Tay Bay, 100 miles from the nearest settlement. When Diana's father then fell terminally ill, she made the wrenching choice to be with him in New Zealand, boarding the last rescue helicopter of the season and leaving Alvah to survive the long polar night alone with his cat, Halifax.

Faced with screaming blizzards, perpetual darkness, and aching loneliness, Alvah learned that more dangerous than the beasts prowling outside the boat were the demons within. Forced to confront the awakening of his spiritual self, he emerged five months later a transformed man. His powerful, triumphant story combines the lyrical excursions of Barry Lopez with the suspense of Into Thin Air to explore the hypnotic draw of our planet's most dangerous beauties.