C
ircumnavigating the globe at the equator wasn’t enough for South African extreme adventurer Horn, so he promptly set out on a solo expedition to the North Pole. As he recounts in the opening chapters of his memoir, an attempt to tie a loose shoelace when the temperature was 76 below zero resulted in his thumb splitting open, the skin “translucent all the way to the bone.” And yet, just a few months after being treated for frostbite, Horn set out again, this time preparing to travel the entire perimeter of the Arctic Circle. This voyage has its own share of death-defying episodes, from multiple encounters with bears to a kayak ride through a maze of icebergs, not to mention the oppressive Russian bureaucracy. But it’s also filled with charming interludes, like Horn’s arrival at a Canadian mining town just days before it closes for good, or his tightrope walk along the top of a Russian oil pipeline. Through all these adventures, Horn reflects on why he feels compelled to push himself to such limits, comparing his trek to a rite of passage: “It was inside myself that I took a long, long walk,” he says. Readers will be grateful to share his experiences vicariously. (June)
