Cold Earth: A Novel [Paperback]

Sarah Moss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2010

A team of six archaeologists from the United States, England, and Scotland assembles at the beginning of the Arctic summer to unearth traces of the lost Viking settlements in Greenland. But as they sink into uneasy domesticity, there is news of an epidemic back home, and their communications with the outside world fall away. Facing a Greenland winter for which they are hopelessly ill-equipped, Nina, Ruth, Catriona, Jim, Ben, and Yianni, knowing that their missives may never reach their loved ones, write final letters home. These letters make up the narrative of Cold Earth, with each section of the book composed of one character’s first-person perspective in letter form.
In this exceptional and haunting debut novel, Moss weaves a rich tapestry of personal narrative, history, love, grief, and naked survival. Cold Earth is both a heart-pounding thriller and a highly sophisticated novel of ideas.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Moss's eerie, sophisticated debut novel drops readers into the middle of Greenland's Arctic summer during an archeological dig to unearth traces of lost Viking settlements. A team of three men and three women from the United States and Europe - each with their own dramatic histories - settles into uneasy domesticity, worried about a looming pandemic that threatens to annihilate the world. Meanwhile, ghosts of the ruins haunt neurotic Englishwoman Nina (already the least qualified of the six), making her companions even edgier. To further complicate matters, the group's remote location cripples communication with the outside world, and a fatal mistake by the team leader makes the archeologists realize how hopelessly ill-equipped they are for the looming winter. Moss uses letters written by her characters to their loved ones as an intimate first-person narrative device; while this works well in sections, the form feels contrived at times. Nevertheless, the correspondence amplifies their struggle and endears them to the reader. While the fear of a worldwide pandemic may have diminished since the writing of this book, Cold Earth still serves as a chilling reminder of the fragility of human existence.
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Review

Praise for Cold Earth

“I’m not one for thrillers . . but Cold Earth had too many good ingredients to pass up . . . Moss draws six unforgettable individuals, through their interactions with fellow archeologists and through letters home to their loved ones. Bugs in amber, carbon in ice—a reader watches their existence constrict to survival.” —Los Angeles Times

“In stripped-down prose that never reveals too much, first-novelist Moss conjures an increasingly creepy atmosphere, the isolation and stark beauty of the Greenland coast, and the rigors of survival in a harsh environment.” —Booklist

Praise for the U.K. edition of Cold Earth

"It is almost perfect . . . This is an unusually promising first novel." —Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Few first novels are as topical as this . . . There is a lot to enjoy." —Financial Times (London)

"Moss's stark writing delivers stinging splashes of cold water. Every element is distilled for purity of purpose." —The Times (London)

"A heart-tingling story." —Metro (London)

"One of the most powerful and gripping debut novels I have ever read." —Scarlett Thomas, author of The End of Mr. Y

"An astounding piece of imaginative fiction taking the reader to the ends of the earth." —Bookseller (London)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582435790
• ISBN-13: 978-1582435794
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,336,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Death doesn't get better. Maybe life does.", January 9, 2011

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cold Earth: A Novel (Paperback)

Whether a pandemic or the effects of global warming pose the more serious threat to man's sojourn on earth, Sarah Moss assembles a team of archeologists from England, Scotland and the US to face their own test in a tale of psychological suspense in a dramatic landscape where winter is uninhabitable. The team of archeologists has arrived in Greenland's arctic summer to catalog tracings of lost Viking settlements. In alternating chapters, each character narrates the experience, the interactions of the members as they perform their appointed tasks and the gradual deterioration of camaraderie that settles over the camp. Echoes of the Viking's turbulent past are felt more substantively by Nina, who has left a boyfriend behind to accompany her friend, Yanni, the leader of the expedition.

Form the first, Nina is haunted by eerie dreams, the howls of fear, the screams of battle and the blood-soaked fields of snow covered in mutilated bodies. In contrast to Nina's unprofessional behavior, Ruth is capable and precise, shielding the loss of her loved one from the others and resistant to Nina's increasing hysteria, her growing insistence that they are not alone. Catriona, an artist at heart, falls in love with the ice, how she might translate it on canvas; Ben, from the north of England, says little and Jim, an American, relies on his Christian faith for the strength to endure a growing dread when the internet reports a spreading pandemic before all communication with the outside world is cut off.

With decreasing food supplies and the stress of sleeplessness as Nina's screams rend the night, the group struggles to retain focus, worries of home nagging everyone as they hunker down to the daily tasks Yanni assigns. The true drama comes from unsettled minds prey to Nina's increasingly erratic behavior and her obsession that they are being watched. The days pass, relationships more fragmented as hopes of any communication with home is shattered. It is this internal territory where trouble brews, each susceptible to the chaos of Nina's unraveling in spite of their best efforts to remain calm.

Nina's vivid dreams imbue the expedition with growing dread, her constant harping on the Greenlander's vulnerability to attack, her warnings that the dead have been disturbed and are agitated by the archeologist's work. What better way to fuel erratic behavior than the possibility of being stranded in a frozen land with no rescue and ghosts all about them? The psychological theme is Cold Earth's strongest appeal, the sad last letters home a sign that hope has gradually been extinguished. Worldwide catastrophe is more tolerable than the reality of spending whatever time remains without food or the comfort of loved ones, these modern students enamored of the past but unable to cope with the diminished futures they so cherished. Luan Gaines/2011.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a very intersting novel, but it just ended, October 24, 2010

By 

Karon E. Waybright - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Cold Earth: A Novel (Paperback)

I really enjoyed the book, but it just ended. The main story was attention grabbing, the back story was mysterious, the individual story lines were intersting, but it just ended. There was almost no finish to the story itself, and everything else was just left.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I found this book very interesting but ultimately disappointing, July 14, 2010

By 

A reader (Highland Park, NJ) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Cold Earth: A Novel (Paperback)

This book kept me reading, and along the way I learned about archeology and Greenland, but there were some loose ends, as if the author couldn't quite figure out how to resolve them.

The ending seemed abrupt and sketchy to me, and a topic that appeared throughout the story (I don't know how to present it without being a spoiler)was suddenly dismissed near the end.

Despite my reservations, I am glad I read it, and plan to pass it on to friends.