The Ice-Cold Heaven

Book excerpt: A “compelling adventure novel” of a young stowaway on the 1914 Antarctic expedition that “draws the reader deep into Shackleton’s frigid world . . . gripping” (Kirkus Reviews). With Ernest Shackleton on his ship Endurance are twenty-eight crew members, sixty-nine sled dogs, a gramophone, a bicycle—and Merce Blackboro, a seventeen-year-old stowaway hidden amidst oilskins and sea boots. Their journey into the ice is by way of the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. But the Antarctic summer is short, and their passage remains resolutely closed to them. In the Weddell Sea the Endurance is trapped for months in pack ice and finds itself delivered up to an uncertain fate. Richly imagined and gripping right up the very last page, The Ice-Cold Heaven traces Shackleton’s legendary and heroic adventure through the ice and explores the relationships between these men who were lost to the world for 635 days. “A compulsively readable adventure yarn, all the more so for being based on real events.” —Kirkus Reviews “A realistic picture of one of history's most famous explorations . . . YA readers, adventure lovers, history buffs, and fans of polar fiction (e.g., Tanis Rideout's Above All Things; Dan Simmons’s The Terror) will enjoy.” —Library Journal “Succeeds in placing the reader firmly alongside the stricken explorers.” —Publishers Weekly “Even those not normally drawn to adventure novels will find the depth of characterization in Bonné’s thrilling novel absorbing.” —Historical Novels Review