Woman in the Polar Night

“Drop everything and come to me!” This is what a fur trapper in Western Spitsbergen wrote to his young wife. And Christiane, an educated young artist from a wealthy family, actually did leave her quiet life with her parents and her young daughter to set out for the inhospitable North. The story was written in the 1940s. The author describes her experiences with extraordinary pragmatism and humour, occasionally reminiscent of the famous book The Egg and I. Christiane, as a proper housewife equipped with items such as dried parsley for her soup, arrives in Spitsbergen. After the initial shock of seeing the tar-coated wooden hut that her husband had prepared for her with a young Norwegian man, who helps the couple and is supposed to keep them company during the polar night, she discovers that their almost sole source of food and vitamins will be seal meat. Once the young woman manages to humanise and cosy up the bachelor household, she begins to perceive the astonishing beauty and power of the northern nature and appreciate the solitude that offers the opportunity for deep contemplation. Later, she even manages to get excited about the beauty of the six-month-long polar night, describing various interesting aspects of existence in the northern conditions and the lives of the inhabitants of Spitsbergen. With her characteristic determination, she overcomes the harsh aspects of life in the North. A pleasant, witty read, written in a still-vivid language, which captivatingly captures the period's realities and has already seen sixteen editions in Germany.