Cynthia Reeves
 

Svalbard. Midsummer's Eve, 1937. Astrid's body cupped in mine, I clasp my arms around her waist. Our pulses coursing together through our skin, I enter her from behind. This was the beginning of our undoing.

 

 

So observes Tor Handeland in The Last Whaler, an elegiac meditation on the will to survive under extreme conditions. Tor, a whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station on Svalbard when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them back to their home in southern Norway. Beyond enduring the Arctic winter's twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, and bitter cold as well as Astrid's unexpected pregnancy. 

Celebrated by The New York Times as one of "Six Engrossing Historical Novels to Keep the Chill Away": The Last Whaler is a "transporting read" that "celebrates . . . an icy landscape filled with enchantment and danger." 

 

Named a Best Book of 2024 by Independent Book Review and Hungry for Good Books

 

". . . a dramatic tale of survival at a frigid whaling station in 1937 Norway. . . .This emotionally rich historical will keep readers turning the pages."—Publishers Weekly |  Link to full review

 

" . . . poignant . . . . a vibrant historical novel in which grief and triumph are set against the severe Arctic wilderness."—Foreword Reviews, *starred review and Book of the Day 9/13/24 | Link to full review

 

"The Last Whaler transports the reader into the life of a whale hunter and his wife stranded during the dark season in the Svalbard archipelago . . . an imaginative, thoughtful, and gripping story." —Historical Novel Society | Link to full review

 

". . . a clear and poignant picture of a married couple working together to survive, and two individuals suffering from the kind of crushing private guilt that prevents them from being there for each other. . . . Indeed, what do we all wish we had done differently? What happens when we realize there are outcomes we cannot change? How do we live with regret? In The Last Whaler, Cynthia Reeves suggests an answer: perhaps the best humans can do is to keep on living."—MER | Link to full review

 

"[The] interplay between the concrete and abstract aspects of life adds depth to the story, inviting readers to ponder the delicate harmony between physical experiences and spiritual ponderings during times of hardship and perseverance. Raw, poignant, and taut; a stunner." —BookView Review, Recommended Read | Link to full review | Link to interview

 

". . . a deeply moving novel . . . . Although there is tragedy and sadness at the heart of the story, this is not a depressing read. There is great joy and happiness and adventure throughout. Part of the pleasure of reading The Last Whaler is seeing this remote land–one that I had never before heard of–portrayed with such richness. Through her deep research . . . and luminous prose, Reeves meticulously recreates life in a distinctive moment and place, and she offers a richly drawn portrait of resilience in the face of stunning hardship." —Small Press Picks | Link to full review

 

"Eloquent and narrative driven, the storytelling skills of author Cynthia Reeves raises her novel to an impressive level of literary excellence...a deftly crafted and compelling historical novel..." —Midwest Book Review

 

"Beautifully and sensitively written, the story told by Tor and through Astrid's letters, the book embraces themes of grief, guilt, and mental health, the early emergence of feminism, our environmental impact, and the impact of war."—The Literate Quilter

 

"This is a hell of a book! Every moment is an urgent conversation between the past and the present, a meditation on the dance between what is ephemeral and what cannot be changed. The landscapes of The Last Whaler are at once metaphysical, emotional, unknowable, and all too real. Questions asked of the silent dead mingle with a couple's daily struggles to survive in a frozen world in which darkness reigns. A masterful storyteller, Reeves replicates grief's unique power to demolish clear distinctions between time and place, between love that heals and love that destroys, and in so doing she has written a memorable, necessary tour de force."

—Robin Black, author of Life Drawing and Mrs. Dalloway: Bookmarked

 

"This story, beautifully told, explores mental illness, religious faith, man's impact on the environment, and the solace of storytelling. You won't want to miss it." —Teri M. Brown Blog | Link to full review

 

"Cynthia Reeves's The Last Whaler is an accomplished and magnificent novel. Meticulously researched and fully imagined, it is the story of a couple's sojourn at an Arctic whaling station in the late nineteen thirties. Told in two distinct and vibrant voices through letters that dramatize daily threats and accomplishments, it is a gripping tale about a marriage under extreme stress as a man and woman, already grieving for a lost child, separately find their peace in inhospitable conditions." 

—Megan Staffel, author of The Causative Factor, The Exit Coach, and Lessons in Another Language

 

"The Last Whaler is survival epic, nature poem, and mythic history of a land few of us will ever visit. But above all it is a fearless novelistic investigation of the ways in which individuals and entire societies can gradually succumb to madness. Cynthia Reeves's depiction of a couple struggling to move past the incomprehensible loss of a child as war laps at the borders of their world is clear-eyed and deeply compassionate."

—Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours and The Virgins

 

"The Last Whaler reimagines the tropes of Victorian and Romantic novels through a uniquely feminist environmentalist lens, rendering a classic story as timely, contemporary fiction. As Tor Handeland reflects on his years hunting beluga whales in the Svalbard archipelago, the reader travels alongside him to the winter that Astrid, his impetuous wife, demanded to accompany him. The clash between a self-determined woman and the traditional male hierarchies of the whaling trade escalates against the backdrop of formidable, stark beauty as the Arctic winter sets in, stranding Astrid and Tor in the "mørketid"—"the time of darkness." The Last Whaler is a raw, beautiful novel you will not soon forget."
—Tanya Whiton, author of Two for the Road

 

"The Last Whaler reconciles the boundless beauty of the Arctic with a frozen hellscape of grief in this skillfully rendered story of a couple living and working at a whaling station on Svalbard, and struggling to survive the death of their son. Cynthia Reeves's writing is riveting, evoking the shadowy boundary between physical and spiritual realms through such details as the lingering stench of trying blubber or the ghostly grace of a wedding gown. As suspenseful as it is profound, Reeves's novel finds harmony in a perilous landscape that seeks balance between life and death, wonder and danger, joy and sorrow."   

—Elizabeth Mosier, author of Excavating Memory: Archaeology and Home  

 

"While war rages in Europe, a beluga hunter sails Norwegian seas, taking his wife with him to distract her from mourning the death of their son. After seafaring adventures Jack London would have envied, they become stranded and must try to survive a long polar winter. The Last Whaler is gale-force with narrative and unforgettable images: a graveyard of whale bones, a fox embryo in formaldehyde, a polar bear scarfing down the last meat reserves stockpiled for humans. The prose is an overlap of ancient tales and modern insights, a meditation on the fleeting beauty of earthly love and existence, and an inquiry into how we best live with ourselves and other creatures."

—Helen Klein Ross, author of The Latecomers, What Was Mine, and Making It

 

"The Last Whaler is a deeply moving novel that meditates on the effects of grief and guilt following the loss of a child. The narrative unfolds through two overlapping perspectives: a mother's letters written to the lost child, and the father's responses to the letters ten years later, at the time of the summer solstice. This dual narrative structure reveals how time can be both suspended and cyclical, where personal and historical memory diffuse into the present. The desolate beauty of the remote Arctic shore becomes a powerful metaphor for a struggle to survive inner turmoil and overwhelming grief. Through deep research and luminous prose, Reeves meticulously recreates life in a remote archipelago during the times bracketing World War II, and she offers a richly drawn portrait of resilience in the face of stunning hardship."

—Beth Castrodale, author of The Inhabitants

 

"The Last Whaler touches on themes of isolation, faith, and storytelling to process life's darker moments. ...It's about these big themes, but it's also about the struggle of a single person to stay alive despite overwhelming grief [and] overwhelming odds. It's about how the dangers that lurk within us are as terrifying as those to be found without. And the dogged impulse of the living to keep on living."—Independent Book Review | Link to full review