description: This first novel begins with an imaginative and ingenious premise: a physician trekking across the Arcturus Glacier in the Canadian Rockies in 1898 slips and tumbles into a crevasse, where he beholds a winged human figure. The rest of the book tells of Dr. Edward Byrne's efforts to get to the bottom of the mystery in the ice. Along the way, he encounters a series of eccentrics, each involved in their own quest: the explorer Freya; the industrialist Trask; the poet Hal; and the slightly mad Elspeth, Byrne's lover. Told through scientific notes, journal entries, letters, and dialogue, this historical tale of the incalculable encountered in the mountains marks a promising debut.
language: English
title: Icefields
titlecomplete: Icefields
genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Canada, Historical, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Adventure, Canadian Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 995
places: Alberta
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Boardman Tasker Prize
category: Mountain Literature, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book in Caribbean and Canada
publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd