Ice Child [Paperback]

Elizabeth McGregor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2002

Jo Harper, a successful young journalist, has only her adored two-year-old son, Sam, to remind her of her late partner. When Sam falls ill, there is only one slim hope - that his stepbrother John may hold the key to his survival. But John has disappeared. Seeking absolution for his part in the accidental death of his marine archeologist father and tortured by their failed relationship, John has set out alone against impossible odds to fulfil his father's dream - to uncover the last traces of the Franklin expedition, which vanished in the Arctic in 1847 while searching for the North West Passage. As uncanny parallels begin to unfold between the last days of the Franklin crew and the crisis facing Sam, Jo is plunged into a desperate race against time to save both the life of her son and the soul of her stepson. Beautifully written and deeply moving, THE ICE CHILD is storytelling at its very best.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are writers who meticulously research their subject but reveal only the tip of the iceberg to their readers. Then there's Elizabeth McGregor. It's not that she skimps on research--on the contrary, she has a very large iceberg of information at her disposal. But she doesn't hide a bit of it below the surface, and the result is a truly epic novel that glories in the details of two worlds: Victorian Arctic exploration and modern medicine.

Jo Harper is a contemporary London journalist saddled by her editor with a story she doesn't want. Namely: Douglas Marshall, an eminent archaeologist, has set out on a trek to research the (real-life) Franklin expedition, which disappeared more than a century ago during a hopeless search for the Northwest Passage. Now Marshall has gone missing too. In the course of her preliminary spadework, Jo finds an archived BBC program wherein Marshall describes the folly of Franklin's endeavor:

Just a few short miles of ice. What was that to the greediest colonizing nation in the world? What were the months of darkness, and the strongest sea currents on the planet? The finest nautical minds of the age talked about it as if it were an afternoon jaunt, brushing aside a few natives, bears, and bits of tundra.

McGregor alternates Jo's story with a running account of the Franklin expedition, narrated by a 16-year-old sailor named Gus. Meanwhile, Marshall is found, and he and Jo pursue a clearly doomed romance. When their child is born with a rare blood disease, the distraught mother commissions a modern-day Arctic expedition to save the baby. Whether her characters are in the tundra or a hospital ward, McGregor's narrative has the momentum of a ship under full sail. Instead of bogging the book down, the carefully accumulated details propel it forward. Here is a large, complicated, lovingly made adventure that reads as easily, and as irresistibly, as a romance. --Claire Dederer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Making her U.S. debut with this dramatic, fast-paced tale of adventure, survival, romance and enduring parental love (human and ursine), British writer McGregor should reach a broad audience here. Acerbic young London journalist Jo Harper has an assignment to interview the wife of Doug Marshall, a British archeologist gone missing in the Arctic while pursuing the mystery of the Franklin Expedition, which vanished in 1845. While Jo has no interest in the story at first, it isn't long before she is fascinated by man and quest alike. When Marshall is rescued, she begins an affair with him and has a child, though her happiness is not fated to last. Three other narratives revolve around Jo's story: Doug's 19-year-old son John's painful attempts to capture "his father's true attention"; the deadly, icebound struggle of the Franklin Expedition, told from the point of view of a 12-year-old ship hand; and a polar bear's dedication to her cub. The protagonist of each segment fears being frozen out, both literally and emotionally, and struggles to survive very private trials. The book shifts its focus without losing steam when a tragic death and another disappearance occur, and a terrible discovery shifts the balance between the searchers and the sought-after. McGregor introduces perhaps one dramatic twist too many, but her novel otherwise artfully mixes historical background, up-to-date medical information about a rare disease, a bit of pop psychologizing and some upbeat lessons about the survival of the human spirit. Major ad/promo; rights sold in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. . (May 7)Forecast: Bearing the hallmarks of a great summer read, this novel hits all the bases. If McGregor comes here to do talk shows, she could attract Oprah's audience with her tale of selling the book just after her 20-year marriage ended.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553813374
• ISBN-13: 978-0553813371
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,654,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A spellbinding read, May 21, 2001

By 

"sara4768" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ice Child (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It is is one of the most satisfying novels I've read in many years. It operates on many levels, exploring complex relationships and an almost forgotten historical event, linking the two through the actions, needs and desires of the main characters.

This is the dramatic story of a race against time to save the life of a child, two year old Sam Marshall. The adored only son of journalist Jo has contracted severe aplastic anaemia and his only hope is a bone marrow transplant from his half-brother, John, who is a close match. But John is missing, his fate curiously linked to one of history's enduring mysteries - the fate of the Franklin expedition - and he's lost in the most inhospitable place on earth.

Essentially THE ICE CHILD is a story about the power of unconditional love and in particular a mother's love for her child. McGregor writes beautifully and has created a deeply moving story that will grab you from the very first page. This is storytelling of the highest order. ENJOY!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an unusual novel!, November 11, 2002

By 

K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ice Child (Paperback)

I've gotta pick up books like this out of the blue more often! It was such a tremendous surprise to me to find a well-written and articulate novel, based on a historical happening that I had never heard about. Most of the other reviewers have given a good synopsis of the surface story in this book. A young single mother is raising her son after the accidental death of the child's father, who was an academic explorer. The child comes face to face with a catastrophic illness, aplastic anemia, and the only real potential donor is the step-brother of this boy, a young adult, who the mother had alienated by charging him with responsibility for the death of the father of both. The story revolves around the search for this step-brother who is blaming himself for the loss of his father, and trying to follow in his father's footsteps as a means of forgiveness and absolution.

Underlying this poignant story is the true story of the 1845 Franklin expedition. I had no idea that even that late in the 19th century they were still trying to find a passage through the Northwest, over the American Continent. As per usual, the British need to explore and expand human knowledge, put them in the driver's seat. Two ships, combining sail and steam as the ultimate in technology at that time period, tried to make their way through the ice floes of the northern seas. Even with their best efforts including the metalization of the hulls of the ships and massive provisions from the new methods of storing foodstuffs in cans (for longer keeping), the ships were doomed to failure.

I checked online to the great quantities of information available concerning the Franklin expedition. Such notable groups as National Geographic are STILL searching for evidence of these ships and the locations of both the ships and the men, who were never heard from again. Only a few buried bodies and a a couple of canisters with information written by the captains concerning the whereabouts of these great ships have been found in over 150 years.

McGregor did her research and got the expedition information right, even though she had to create a 'voice' in the presence of a young boy on ship. In the midst of the heroic efforts of these men to survive and further the growth of human knowledge, the story of what actually led to their demise is horrifying. Once again, like with the shuttle Challenger, the greed of those men/corporations providing materials for these 'ships' doomed these men to almost sure death. In this case, it was the canned goods, which were sealed with tin that leaked lead into the meat inside. On top of that, the meat inside was often put in without prior cooking, and the temperatures reached for sealing the cans were not high enough to cook either the middle of the meat, nor complete the vacuum. This meant that the meats were raw, and over time became disgusting and putrid, as well as many of the tins contained botulism (one of the faster acting toxins even used in biowarfare today). There is written evidence of an inquiry into the tin cans from the 1850's and the exposure of this horrific negligence in order to gain more money by the man who supplied these goods to the royal navy of Britain. Once again, man's inhumanity to man raises it's ugly head.

The book is extremely articulate, the pictures drawn by the author well-done. The agony of the mother and those who love this child who is going through chemotherapy and the push for a bone marrow transplant are accurate (as I've been through it with a friend's daughter who did not survive with leukemia).

I went through this book in two days flat even with work and dissertation.Highly recommended!!!

Karen Sadler,
Science Education

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good read, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ice Child (Hardcover)

As an imaginative exploration of history's hold on us, this book deserves top marks. Through the device of three separate stories it succeeds in establishing the resonance of events, remote in time and place. Skillfully and credibly Elizabeth McGregor forges a connection between a disastrous voyage of polar exploration in the 1840s and 21st century Britain.
Unfortunately, one of the novel's central supports, the modern-day story of a journalist, her polar explorer lover and their desperately sick child, fails to carry its weight. It revolves around a cast of poorly constructed characters with whom it is difficult to develop much empathy. The plot, thin at best, borders on the banal. Although exhaustively researched, that part of the story never really grabs hold, never rings true.
However, Ms. McGregor is on much firmer ground when she takes us to the Arctic. There the story takes on a luminous life. The characters are compelling and the account of their ordeal moving. Here, the fruits of the author's research evoke fascination - as opposed to irritation. In the hands of this skillful writer the story attains a magisterial quality, worthy of the tragedy at its heart.