Fraser's Penguins - by Fen Montaigne (Paperback)

About the Book

Montaigne recounts Bill Fraser's three-decade study of the Adevelie penguins in the western Antarctic Peninsula, and tells how they bear witness to climate changes that foreshadow our own future.

Book Synopsis

"Fraser's Penguins is a brilliant, beautiful, and terrifying account of what's happening at the bottom of our world."--Nathaniel Philbrick, author of The Last Stand, In the Heart of the Sea, and Sea of Glory

Called "exceptionally poignant" by Nature magazine, Fen Montaigne's sensitive and timely account of five months in Antarctica gives a taste of the global changes that will soon arrive in our own backyards. Scientist Bill Fraser has devoted three decades to Antarctica, and in that time this breathtaking region has warmed faster than any place on earth, with profound consequences for the Adélies, the classic tuxedoed penguin that is dependent on sea ice to survive. During the Antarctic spring and summer of 2005-2006, author Fen Montaigne spent five months working on Fraser's field team, and he returned with a moving tale that chronicles the beauty of the wildest place on earth, the lives of the beloved Adélies, the saga of the discovery of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the story--told through Fraser's work--of how rising temperatures are swiftly changing this part of the world. It's Montaigne's "descriptive prowess, his ability to evoke lavender--and cobalt, magenta and violet--without waxing purple, that most impresses" (New York Times Book Review) as he chronicles the penguins' plight, which is also our own.

Review Quotes

"Montaigne is a controlled writer, offering careful and clear explanations of matters technical and lexicographic, biologically microscopic and meteorologically global. But it's his descriptive prowess, his ability to evoke lavender--and cobalt, magenta and violet--without waxing purple, that most impresses .... Sometimes telling less reveals more. At other times, Montaigne gives thrilling, blow-by-blow accounts of bird battles and breakups .... "Fraser's Penguins" leaves one feeling exhilarated--by these remarkable creatures, the landscape they inhabit and the scientists who've devoted their lives to studying both."--Elizabeth Royte, "The New York Times Book Review"""

"Exceptionally poignant. [Montaigne] voices the emotions that inundate everyone who works in this vast wilderness. And he captures details such as the fantastic scenery as the boat picks its way through broken sea ice dotted with resting seals and groups of penguins squint-eyed under a dazzling light."--Yvon Le Maho,

"A bittersweet account of the stark beauty of the continent and the climate change that threatens its delicate ecosystem .... Montaigne poetically portrays the daunting Antarctic landscape and gives readers an intimate perspective on its rugged, audacious, and charming penguin and human inhabitants."—"PW"

"In this sympathetic firsthand report, Montaigne describes the lives of both the researchers who brave the harsh weather and the penguins whose habitat is quickly becoming inhospitable to their reproduction. Montaigne’s compelling account is a clear and impassioned call for environmental action before the consequences of global warming turn catastrophic worldwide."—Rick Roche, "Booklist"

"Sobering, fact-based cautionary treatise on the quiet storm of climate change."—"Kirkus"

"Richly observed and keenly affecting, "Fraser's Penguins "is a portrait of a world in the process of disappearing. Fen Montaigne has written an evocative and important book

About the Author

Fen Montaigne is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, and The Wall Street Journal. A former Moscow bureau chief of The Philadelphia Inquirer, he is the author of Reeling in Russia and has co-authored two other books. For his work on Fraser's Penguins, Montaigne was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. He now works as senior editor of the online magazine Yale Environment 360.