One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "My first memory is this..." (more)
Key Phrases: Dronning Louise Land, Tobias Gabrielsen, Continental Drift (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In British author Dudman's stunning first adult novel, she reveals the poetry of science, interweaving a deep character study of German meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) with scenes of pulse-pounding Arctic adventure. Today, Wegener's theory of continental drift, with some refinements, is accepted as scientific truth. During his time, however, Wegener was seen as an eccentric failure. Dudman allows Wegener to tell his own story in first-person present tense. This approach utterly immerses the reader in a sensual, detail-rich world. Dudman's prose is luminous, as in Wegener's reverie over the pages of a rare old book: "I too am adding parts of myself to the pages: oils are leaking from the skin of my hands and molecules of fat are smearing themselves invisibly on its surface." Dudman also displays an astute gift for characterization. Wegener's complex relationship with his brother Kurt and his love for his wife, Else, as measured against his lust for meteorological expeditions, is expertly, often heartbreakingly portrayed. As the story leads inexorably toward Wegener's demise in the frozen tundra of Greenland, Dudman's control over her material becomes even more masterful. The emotional yet understated final scenes are particularly fine. Above all, Dudman shows us one incontrovertible truth about her Wegener: he loved the world, in all of its riotous complexity. Some may say the same of Dudman after reading this wise, beautiful novel.
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From The New Yorker

In 1930, the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener disappeared on an expedition to Greenland; six months later, his body was found, perfectly preserved, beneath the ice. Dudman takes this as the starting point of her novel, a fictional autobiography in which Wegener embodies the scientist as man of action, launching hydrogen-balloon flights, spelunking down frozen crevasses, and racing across glaciers as the ice cracks. Between exploits, he investigates the origins of rain and the craters of the moon, and fends off attacks on his theory of continental drift—dismissed at the time as far-fetched but now widely accepted. As a narrator, Wegener is firmly rooted in his time, almost to a fault; occasionally, one wishes that the prose were less restrained and that the author had given her subject's life more of an arc. Still, Dudman artfully channels Wegener's voice—prim and fastidious, but filled with longing—so convincingly that her book reads like an artifact of Old World exploration.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1 Amer ed edition (February 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0641787375
• ISBN-13: 978-0670032761
• ASIN: 067003276X
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,800,304 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful, Poignant, and Complex Novel, June 8, 2004

By	Jeff VanderMeer (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

The physicist who gave this book three stars wants the book to be something it isn't. It's not trying to be a biography of Wegener. If Dudman wanted to write a biography of Wegener, she would have. As it stands, she has instead written a poetic, wonderfully idiosyncratic and moving portrait of a life, complete with stunning adventure and complex relationships. By eschewing a traditional plot, Dudman has freed up her story and characters to be both more real and more immediate. Amazing work. One of my favorite novels of the past few years, right up there with Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars lyrical, strong central character, slows a bit toward end, November 13, 2004

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

German scientist Alfred Wegener, whose Continental Drift theory met with years of derision, is the focus of this lyrically told fictionalized biography. Known, if at all, for his theory on the continents, Wegener actually delved into more than one discipline and Dudman wisely chooses to show the totality of his life rather than focus on his major claim to semi-fame. In fact, his battle over the continents is less interesting than his several trips to the Greenland ice sheet.
As much biography as fiction, there isn't much in terms of narrative, the book simply follows Wegener through childhood, when scientific curiosity begins; young adulthood when his interests begin to focus; adulthood and its accompanying issues of marriage, fatherhood, World War I, and the introduction of his theory; and finally later adulthood where he battles for his theory against the many naysayers.
The language shifts easily between the poetic and the scientific, with the two sometime merging in some of the best passages of the book. The most "exciting" parts of the book, in terms of adventure, are the expeditions to Greenland, though I personally never found them more than interesting, certainly not as compelling or mythic as similar tales of Shackleton or Franklin. Once we leave Greenland behind and return to the fight over his theory, the book seems to lose some of its urgency. It's difficult to make scientific lectures, articles, and responses to articles particularly interesting but it's also hard to tell this part of the story without referring to such things. Things perk up a bit by the last trip to Greenland, which shifts into a more poetic stream of consciousness. By then though the book had admittedly started to drag a bit and I found myself wishing I could enjoy the writing a bit more without the accompanying sense of impatience. The close, however, is as moving as it is b beautiful.
Overall, though the book does lose some of its drive and interest, it remains well worth reading, somewhat for its subject matter but more for its characterization and its poetic depiction of the scientific imagination. Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Scenes of Daring Adventures in Greenland, May 18, 2004

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Those who love to read stories about dangerous, arduous expeditions to extend knowledge in Arctic regions will find this book to be a fine addition to the literature. From the preface discussion of ice through to the ending chapter, you will feel yourself enduring the difficulties of the various explorers as they trek where no one had gone before and measure what had not been studied before.

Normally, I prefer to read nonfiction books about scientists but in this case Ms. Dudman's imaginative, sensitive writing makes the novelistic journey to understanding Wegener a rewarding one.

Today, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener is best known for putting together the first well documented hypothesis about continental drift. But even in that context he is not well known. His ideas were widely derided during his life by geologists who disliked his poaching into their territory without academic credentials. As a result, memories of him and his work had largely died out by the time that continental drift was proven in the 1960s through the use of research methods unavailable during Wegener's life.

But Wegener was a man of many modes. As a young man, he and his brother established a duration record for balloon flight, and he participated in three scientific studies in Greenland . . . heading the last one at age 49. He also made scientific contributions to our understanding of how rain is formed and that meteorites helped produce many of the craters on the moon.

I decided to read the book because I wanted to know more about his role in the continental drift hypothesis. That aspect of the book receives relatively little attention, and I came away little more informed than I was when I began except to know more about what his critics had to say at the time. I graded the book down by one star for its lack of emphasis in this area.

What I found surprising and exciting was that Wegener was such an intrepid and successful Artic explorer. The parts about him in Greenland are very well done. If you want to read a book with that kind of orientation, I can strongly recommend this one. It will be a five star effort for you.

After the preface, the book gets off to a slow start in describing his early years. Be patient though. By page 52, the book begins to hit its pace. By page 71, you will find yourself engrossed in a way that will continue to the end.

Where can curiosity take you? What have you noticed that speaks to you . . . that no one else understands? How can you explain what it means so that others will see what you see?