One-hundred years after the disastrous 1913 expedition to Everland in Antarctica, a modern team is flown in to collect data on seals and penguins. They’re the first to set foot on the island since the earlier, doomed mission, but before long their decisions snowball into catastrophe.

“Several hours later their oars were clogging in huge mats of kelp, and hope had become like a filthy secret which both men were too ashamed to speak of.” (26)

The novel follows three timelines - two in the past and one contemporary; they are equally engaging and plaited tightly as rope. The short chapters, cliffhangers, and echoes of the past mirror Everland’s landscape of ridged terrain, crumpled ice sheets, and eery Fata Morgana.

The characters also echo each other: each expedition comprises a crew of three, and the earlier personalities are replicated in the modern team - bringing the ghosts of the past to life.

The first third of the book skates on thin ice. The modern team lack competence, objectivity, and emotional intelligence on such a scale that I couldn’t sufficiently suspend disbelief to credit this bunch of narcissists. The early text is dampened by travel-notes description, repetition, and over-explanation. Teenage adjectives like “amazing” are used, and the rich and specific vocabulary relating to expeditions, flora and fauna, and the Antarctic environment is missing. I thought the cartoonish names of the characters - Dinners, Jess, Napps, Brix, and Decker - undermined the gravity of the novel’s core themes and subject matter.

However, Everland is worth the early slog. The disintegration of physical capability, acumen, and team spirit is as devastating as it is compelling. The hallucinations and chaos both expeditions slide into are well-portrayed, and fascinating in themselves. Dinners’ paranoia and flawed logic are harrowing, and the trekking scenes with the sled are gripping. Misfortunes and suspense accrue, and I read late into the night worrying about Napps and Millet-Bass.

“The real dilemma, Dinners now saw clearly, was that they were being watched by something devious. It lurked outside the boundary of his limited vision, but it was certainly near enough to sense.” (264)

One of the most interesting aspects of Everland is its portrayal of the fallibility of eyewitness accounts and the way history is presented by survivors. The great gap between what happened and what was reported is the real tragedy of Everland.

Everland is Rebecca Hunt’s second novel, and was published by Europa Editions in 2015.

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Further literary expeditions!

Non-fiction:

No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi - the extraordinary account of three prisoners-of-war escaping to climb Mt Kenya, and then breaking back in again; true story.

Fiction:

The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes - an epic battle of man versus sea: rich in nautical vocabulary and realism.