After the North Pole - by Erling Kagge (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The North Pole looms large in our collective psyche--the ultimate Otherland in a world mapped and traversed. It is the center of our planet's rotation, one of the places that is most vulnerable in an epoch of global climate change. Its sub-zero temperatures and strange year of one sunset and one sunrise make it an eerie, utterly disorienting place that challenges human endurance and understanding. Erling Kagge and his friend Bge Ousland became the first people 'to ever reach the pole without dogs, without depots, and without motorized aids, ' skiing for 58 days from a drop off point on the ice edge of Canada's northernmost island. Erling describes his record-making journey, probing the physical challenges and psychological motivations for embarking on such an epic expedition, the history of the territory's exploration, its place in legend and art, and the thrilling adventures he experienced during the trek"--

Book Synopsis

"A dazzling book -- soulful, awe-inspiring, and deeply thought-provoking. Erling Kagge takes readers on a journey they'll never forget." -- Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life

"After the North Pole is a thrilling, insightful, and magical journey with something to interest readers of all stripes." -- Shelf Awareness

From acclaimed Norwegian explorer, philosopher, and writer Erling Kagge comes the astounding story of his record-setting 58-day journey on skis to the North Pole, laced with profound meditations on nature, other daredevils, and the history of our obsession with the Pole.

"The numbers are uncertain, but in the twentieth century, it is estimated that around a thousand men tried to reach the North Pole... of those, 751 have died doing so." -- Erling Kagge

The North Pole is the ultimate Otherland in a world mapped and traversed. It is the center of our planet's rotation. Its sub-zero temperatures and strange year of one sunset and one sunrise make it an eerie, utterly disorienting place that challenges human endurance and understanding. Kagge and his friend Børge Ousland became the first people to ever reach the pole without any support from man or machine, skiing for 58 days from a drop-off point on the ice edge of Canada's northernmost island.

Erling, whose books often top 'best of' lists, probes:

the physical challenges and psychological motivations for embarking on such an epic expeditionthe extensive history of the territory's exploration--marked as it was by scandal, murder, shipwreck, shifting ice, and roaming polar bearsits place in legend and artand the thrilling adventures he experienced during the trek. It is yet another example of what bestselling author Robert Macfarlane has called "Kagge's extraordinary life in wild places."

As majestic, mesmerizing, and monumental as the terrain it captures, After the North Pole is for anyone who has gazed out at the horizon--and wondered what happens if you keep going.

After the North Pole is illustrated with 12-14 photographs.

Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson.

"It's impossible to read Erling Kagge and not fall in love with the North Pole. His enthusiasm is infectious, and his adventures are epic." -- Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

Review Quotes

"An electrifying memoir of a daring journey through Earth's most unforgiving landscapes. Intrepid explorer and philosopher Erling Kagge masterfully intertwines the adrenaline of his 58-day ski trek to the apex of the world with captivating lore, forgotten histories of past expeditions to the frozen unknown, and profound reflections on survival and our planet's fragility. A bouillabaisse of pure delight." - Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
"A mesmerizing book... Kagge is an expert guide of the history, science, and adventures of the North Pole, showing us how one of the most remote and dangerous places on Earth can draw out our most elemental sensation: that of being fully alive in the world." - Ben Shattuck, author of The History of Sound: Stories
"Layered into Erling Kagge's rich, evocative history of our quest to reach the North Pole--a quest characterized by dreams of conquest and exploitation, and ideas of romantic heroism, and tales of pain and suffering--is Kagge's own quest for the North Pole. We share his journey of beauty and fragility amid biting cold, gnawing hunger, and a life-threatening encounter with a polar bear. His story, of heaven and hell in one turn after another, is riveting." - Deborah Cramer, author of The Narrow Edge
"A wonderful book about the sublime, eerie place known as the North Pole. A place that has doubled as a fertile dreamscape as much as a hard, inhospitable landscape for human beings over the centuries. This is the book of a lifetime, from a rare writer-adventurer whose obsession and passion for his subject knows no bounds." - Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees
"A dazzling book -- soulful, awe-inspiring, and deeply thought-provoking. Erling Kagge takes readers on a journey they'll never forget." - Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life
"A distinctive, thoughtful, and quietly moving work by that rarest of creatures, a genuine philosopher-explorer. Erling Kagge has heard the call of the wild as clearly as anyone, and in this gem of a book he demonstrates how the North Pole has served as a container of countless human hopes, dreams, and sorrows--including his own." - Darrell Hartman, author of Battle of Ink and Ice
"A well-researched dive into the lure of the Arctic tundra as he experienced it and into the legendary expeditions that fueled his passion... Bursting with history and adventure and a cautionary observation: the rapid speed of climate change is upon us and will likely affect future expeditions." - Booklist
"After the North Pole is a thrilling, insightful, and magical journey with something to interest readers of all stripes... This intriguing adventure through time, history, and ice investigates the myth and reality of the North Pole." - Shelf Awareness
"In 1990, [Erling Kagge] and his fellow Norwegian Børge Ousland were the first to reach the pole unassisted, with only skis for transport. It was a considerable accomplishment that gives him unique insight into the centuries of stories he recounts here... it's that history that constitutes the bulk of this captivating volume." - Anchorage Daily News
"Erling Kagge is an adventurer in the true sense of the word, exploring his curiosity with physical and intellectual and creative capabilities, all of which are prodigious, and fully engaging the reader in his adventures. At the conclusion of a Kagge read, I usually note my hands are sweating." - Bob Shaye, founder, New Line Cinema
"Exhilaratingly Epic as the Land in Grandeur, called HOME." - dg nanouk okpik, American Book Award-winning author of Corpse Whale