South Light: A Journey to the Last Continent

On assignment for Smithsonian magazine (where portions of this book were published) and under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, Parfit spent a full season in Antarctica. It was an exciting and rewarding year, from his arrival in a whiteout to departure on the research vessel Hero with a dramatic rescue of fire victims. He traveled far and wideto the South Pole station and other isolated camps, to Mt. Siple, in virgin territory, aboard the icebreaker Polar Sea. There were periodic returns to the ""city,'' McMurdo; Parfit took a crash course at a survival school, built an igloo, skinny-dipped in an ice hole. He visited the Russian and Chilean stations, accompanied marine biologists on the Hero. While he pays proper respecteven wonderto the landscape and wildlife, his focus is on the remarkable men and women, scientists and military personnel, who choose to work in Antarctica. Parfit, author of The Boys Behind the Bombs, enjoyed his year at the Far South; so will the reader. January 3