The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds

In undertaking an epic trek from the Pacific Northwest to the Alaskan Arctic, Van Hemert, a wildlife biologist, and her husband encountered both the grandeur and danger of some of the planet’s wildest locations. She vividly renders the experience, including being stalked by a black bear in the Brooks Range, initially visible only as “deep-set eyes, a pointed nose, and cinnamon-colored fur”; fighting the elements in a homemade rowboat off Vancouver Island; capsizing a raft in the Arctic Ocean; and coming under relentless attack for days by thousands of mosquitos in the Mackenzie Delta. Similarly, descriptions of witnessing a huge herd of caribou crossing Alaska’s Noatak River and of being followed in the Arctic Ocean by two huge moose, “large, brown noses stirring the surface of the water as they stare blankly ahead,” capture the magnificence of untamed nature. Van Hemert proves equally adept at exploring the inner dialogue that accompanied the harrowing physical feats, touching on love and loss, new parenthood, and the struggle to combine her passions for scientific inquiry and adventure. She leaves nature lovers with a story—of adventure, of environmental awareness, and of personal discovery—worth savoring.[em] Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary. (Mar.) [/em]