A woman in the polar night - christiane ritter

A rediscovered classic memoir - the mesmerizingly beautiful account of one womans year spent living in a remote hut in the Arctic In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, to spend a year there with her husband.

She thinks it will be a relaxing trip, a chance to read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my hearts content, but when Christiane arrives she is shocked to realize that they are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement, battling the elements every day, just to survive.

At first, Christiane is horrified by the freezing cold, the bleak landscape the lack of equipment and supplies.

But as time passes, after encounters with bears and seals, long treks over the ice and months on end of perpetual night, she finds herself falling in love with the Arctics harsh, otherworldly beauty, gaining a great sense of inner peace and a new appreciation for the sanctity of life.

This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying societys expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime.