The fictitious Shackleton South Pole Research Facility, as stated in the text, is based on the very real Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, but I’ve taken poetic license in describing its construction and usage, as well as the lives of the people who live and work there. Ice-heads who have spent time at Amundsen-Scott will, I hope, forgive the many liberties I’ve taken and appreciate the facts when I’ve used them.
I’ve played fast and loose with the salutogenic theories of Aaron Antonovsky, but his work is fascinating and worthy of study, as are the investigations into the phenomenon of T3 syndrome. Any misunderstandings of his work or the broader field of Antarctic psychology are my own.
The Lyubov Orlova station is fictitious and was invented solely for storytelling purposes; to my knowledge, there is no base, Russian or otherwise, near the Amundsen-Scott facility. The name of the station is my homage to the MV Lyubov Orlova , the ship I took on my sole visit to Antarctica (though not the South Pole), which has since been decommissioned and lost at sea. The ship, in turn, was named after the lovely and talented Lyubov Orlova, “the first recognized star of Soviet cinema.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would not have been able to write this novel without the help, direct and indirect, of the following people, places, and things.
The love and support of my family and friends form the foundation for any novel I write. I include in those two groups my extended family at Thomas & Mercer, who have helped and mentored me along the way. Thank you all.
Special thanks goes out to my editor Jacque Ben-Zekry for believing in the project from the start and providing great advice and humor along the way; Caitlin Alexander, who improved this book by several orders of magnitude over one incredibly intense month of editing; and Jon Ford, whose eagle eye caught the many mistakes that (somehow!) slipped through the first dozen drafts. Thank you all for your patience, sensitivity, and expert advice.
The blogs of the legendary Bill Spindler ( www.southpolestation.com ) and world-traveler Jeffrey Donenfeld ( www.jeffreydonenfeld.com ) were so instrumental to my research that this book wouldn’t exist in its present form without them. Additional invaluable information—including some breathtaking photography—came from the personal blogs of Marc Ankenbauer ( www.glacierexplorer.com ), Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin ( www.ulterior-motors.com ), and Marco Tortonese ( www.marcopolie.blogspot.com ).
Other helpful online resources included the National Science Foundation’s United States Antarctic Program website (www.usap.gov ) and the Antarctic Sun (antarcticsun.usap.gov ), the continent’s largest (only?) newspaper.
For an inside view of the lives of some of the quirkiest, bravest, and most singular people on the planet as well as achingly beautiful cinematography, nothing beats Anthony Powell’s documentary film Antarctica: A Year on Ice (www.frozensouth.weebly.com ). If you have a chance to view it, you’ll find that, far from exaggerating what it’s like at the bottom of the world, I barely did it justice.
Written resources include Kim Heacox’s Antarctica: The Last Continent , a poetic and sensitive treatment of the continent’s history and significance; Kim Stanley Robinson’s Antarctica , a novel that delivers profound ruminations about the future and past of Antarctica, as well as humanity’s role on it, while spinning an entertaining tale at the same time; Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World , the stunning and eloquent account from a man who nearly gave his life in those heroic early days of Antarctic exploration; and Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition , with its awe-inspiring photography by Frank Hurley and, of course, the even more jaw-dropping account of Ernest Shackleton’s unprecedented voyage.
Background on the psychological effects of wintering over, confinement psychology, and general information on Aaron Antonovsky’s fascinating theory of salutogenesis was gleaned from “The Psychology of Isolated and Confined Environments: Understanding Human Behavior in Antarctica” by Lawrence A. Palinkas.
Technical details about snowmobiles and their maintenance were cribbed from the excellent American Snowmobiler magazine ( www.amsnow.com ).
I received encouragement and sage advice from Jil Simon, David Jacobstein, and Maria Schneider. David Mugg and his wife, Sarah (McMurdo, 2013), gave generously of their time, sharing their pictures, stories, and knowledge of life at the bottom, including the disappointment that comes from discovering you only have mint Irish cream liqueur to drink until the next flight arrives from Christchurch.
This project would’ve stalled out at two chapters without the coffee and shelter provided by the baristas of Swing’s, Killer E.S.P., Stomping Grounds, St. Elmo’s, and Grounded.
For musical inspiration, I turned most often to Radical Face and Kishi Bashi, but especially the dark, atmospheric works of composers Petri Alanko, Roque Ba?os, Jason Graves, and Garry Schyman.
Lastly, to the readers who’ve made this career possible, thank you. You’ve made this writer’s dreams come true.