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A whaler's daughter, Flora Mackie first crossed the Arctic Circle at the age of twelve, falling in love with the cold and unforgiving terrain and forging lifelong bonds with the Inuit people who have carved out an existence on its icy plains. She sets out to become a scientist and polar explorer, despite those who believe that a young woman has no place in this harsh world, and in 1892, her determination leads her back to northern Greenland at the head of a British expedition.Yearning for wider horizons, American geologist Jakob de Beyn joins a rival expedition led by the furiously driven Lester Armitage. When the path of Flora's expedition crosses theirs, the three lives become intertwined. All are obsessed with the north, a place of violent extremes: perpetual night and endless day; frozen seas and coastal meadows; heroism and selfishness. Armitage's ruthless desire to be the undisputed leader of polar discovery sets in motion a chain of events whose tragic outcomes--both for his team of scientists and the indigenous people of Greenland--will reverberate for years to come.Set against the stark, timeless beauty of northern Greenland and fin-de-sicle New York and London, Under a Pole Star is a compelling look at the dark side of the golden age of exploration, a study of the corrosive power of ambition, and an epic, incendiary love story. It shows that sometimes you have to travel to the farthest edge of the world in order to find your true place in it.



About the Author

Stef Penney

Stef Penney is a screenwriter and the author of three novels: The Tenderness of Wolves (2006) , The Invisible Ones (2011) , and Under a Pole Star (2016) . She has also written extensively for radio, including adaptations of Moby Dick, The Worst Journey in the World, and, mostly recently, a third installment of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise series.The Tenderness of Wolves won Costa Book of the Year, Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year, and was translated into thirty languages. It has just been re-issued in a 10th anniversary edition. Five facts about SP:1. I like snow. There is a magic in cold landscapes that compels me more than any other. I'm the ultimate armchair explorer. In my mind this is linked to my former agoraphobia. Wide open, hostile places produce in me a visceral reaction; perhaps that's why I can't stop writing, or reading, about them. I'm drawn to what scares me - treeless wilderness, the open sea, Space... 2. I do zero-carbon research. Unlike the protagonist of Under A Pole Star, I haven't been to the North Pole. I have been to the Scandinavian Arctic - which is totally different - but am unconvinced that being there has made my writing about landscape any stronger (I hadn't been before The Tenderness of Wolves) . Being there normalises a place; you are struck by differences, but even more by similarities: wherever there are people, there be dentists. Still, I have great memories of Lapland: picking sour blueberries from the banks of a mountain stream; cross-country skiing and realising that I could still fall over as safely as when I was a child; watching a Japanese contestant in the Air Guitar World Championships channel Star Wars; visiting Santa's village and meeting the man himself - and sitting on his knee - in August... 3. I'm Scottish. I have a love-hate relationship with Scotland that is shared by many Scottish exiles. Elements of this: pride in its Enlightenment thinkers, its inventiveness and internationalism; love and awe of the landscape; nostalgia for chilly Highland summers; a sneaking pride in having endured games on frozen fields, in shorts, and endless walks in scenery obscured by drizzle. Then there's the food: deep-fried Mars bar - delicious. Deep-fried frozen pizza, on the other hand... Scotland's a great place. I'd probably want to live in it, if I hadn't grown up there.4. I'm a feminist. Doesn't need saying these days, right? Or maybe it does. Writing about a female explorer at the end of the 19th Century, I've been more aware of it than ever. The protagonist struggles to be taken seriously with her ambition, of course, but something else happened in the writing process I didn't expect: it became a deeply explicit love story. This felt like a political as well as a narrative necessity; there have been far too many vague, unconvincing and plain misleading sex scenes in books and films, and it felt vital to tell the truth - and for



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