Midge Raymond’s My Last Continent caught my eye when I was busy perusing the July publishing schedules for a preview post. It’s set mainly in Antarctica, a backdrop shared by two other novels that I’d read and thoroughly enjoyed: Favel Parret’s tale of the 1987 Nella Dan disaster, When the Night Comes, and Rebecca Hunt’s Everland which recounts two expeditions separated by a century. I was hoping for more glorious descriptions of the Antarctic landscape and Raymond delivers them beautifully in her moving story of Deb and Keller, drawn to each other by their mutual love for this desolate yet majestic continent.
Close to forty and unmarried, Deb is a researcher for a project examining the effects of climate change and tourism on penguins. She’s something of a loner, more at home on the ice observing her beloved birds than at the parties her Oregon landlord throws. Ironically, her annual research trips are funded by her work as a tour guide aboard the Cormorant, educating tourists about the impact of their behaviour on the environment. She’s all too well aware that her own research increases the penguins’ anxiety as much as the presence of tourists during their heavily supervised excursions. It’s on one of these trips that she meets Keller who has turned his back on his career as a lawyer. These two see each other only during their summer research stints – Deb hoping for something more, Keller still untethered after the loss of his daughter. One summer Keller fails to appear on the Cormorant, dropped after overstepping the mark in expressing his views to a passenger. When the book opens we know there will be a shipwreck and that the death toll will be heavy but we don’t know who will die.
There are two narrative strands running through Raymond’s novel: one unfolding Deb’s story, taking us back and forth over twenty years; the other, her account of the weeks leading up to the shipwreck. Raymond’s writing has a quiet, contemplative tone which contrasts sharply with the dramatic suspense of the shipwreck scenes. The love story between Deb and Keller is deftly handled, properly grown up in its acknowledgement of the tensions between them, but this is not simply a novel about two lovers – it’s a passionate tribute to the no longer pristine Antarctic icescape and the fauna that inhabits it. Raymond is never sentimental in her descriptions but it’s impossible not to be moved by her recurring image of the ‘flipper dance’ with which Emperor penguin mates greet each other after a long separation ending with an ecstatic cry, echoing Deb and Keller’s encounters. Her novel is full of arresting images – icebergs the size of skyscrapers, a zebra-striped monochrome island – conjuring up a world of stark beguiling beauty where the slightest slip can result in death. Raymond weaves her research lightly through her writing; there’s no bludgeoning the reader with polemic but the awareness of the environment’s fragility is always there. Enlightening, absorbing and moving, it’s a damn good read which succeeded in transporting me into a very different world from the one outside my door on what was then the hottest day of the year.
Sounds like a good find, a great setting and bit of suspense knowing what’s to come bt not the outcome.
Her descriptions of Antarctica are beautiful, Claire.
I loved this book. I learned a lot from it, while enjoying a wonderful romance and adventure in Antarctica. Fabulous.
I agree, Annabel. She manages to steer neatly clear of the anthropomorphic, too
Great review Susan, you’ve made me want to rush out and buy it immediately. I love books about the Arctic, the Antarctic, the sea, deserts, isolation. It sounds like the book perfectly balances the environment with a compelling story.
Thanks, Belinda. Job done! I think you’re a fan of Jenny Diski’s Skating to Antarctica which is what drew me to reading about this part of the world. If that’s so I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Sounds like a good read and one that will expand my knowledge about a part of the world I know little of and am unlikely ever to get to see for myself unless I win the Lottery ( extremely unlikely since I don’t play it)
Definitely an enlightening read but Rayomnd weaves her knowledge in so skilfully that she steers well clear of clunkiness.
Thanks so much, Susan, for this lovely review! I am thrilled you enjoyed the book…and I hope everyone else does, too!
You’re very welcome, Midge. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Antarctica and a ship wreck? This is my cup of tea!
Ah, you might try the Favel Parrett too, then, Naomi
I fell in love with the cover for this one, and I’m so eager to read it. i love stories set in Antarctica.
It was Antarctica that attracted me to this one and I enjoyed it even more than I’d hoped. Her descriptions of the icescape are glorious.
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