Following his "Arctic dreams" that began with a photograph of the haggard crew of the ill-fated ship Endurance, Alvah Simon and his wife, Diana, set sail to winter in the high north. "We call them explorers, but I knew that look in their eyes," Simon writes of the early Arctic adventurers. "They were seekers, and that is a different thing." With self-discovery as a deeper agenda, the couple ventures into Tay Bay of remote Bylot Island; it is their ultima Thule--"the Last Unknown." Their small boat is willingly frozen in the ice. When Diana is airlifted out of the Arctic to tend to an emergency back home, Simon is unexpectedly left in solitude. His journey turns inward as he confronts the "uncomfortable awakening of my spiritual self." In the waning daylight, then total darkness, Simon's days are punctuated by depression and mania, a crackled voice over the radio, Inuit visitors, and hard-earned lessons as he is driven by the forces of the Arctic winter and by "the total loss of the sun." In this elegant, well-paced book, the Arctic darkness becomes a psychological landscape perforated with light and revelation, and Simon's thrilling tale is as captivating as his language. There is a welcome intimacy here as we share the same icy hull, listening close to this searching man. Simon courageously tells us about his darkest moments, dreams, and nightmares, and when the sun emerges, new eyes greet land and relationships. Simon has discovered his ultima Thule. --Byron Ricks


From Publishers Weekly
In the summer of 1992, Simon and his wife, both experienced adventurers, set off in a 36-foot sailboat, the Roger Henry, toward northern Canada to spend a year above the Arctic Circle. In his survival memoir, Simon recounts the physical and psychological demands of the Arctic with an almost sheepish bravado; his capacity to discuss the beauty of the landscape, the culture of the Inuit and the protean nature of glacial ice is matched only by a reckless drive to make his journey more "authentic" by taking unnecessary, and often life-endangering, risks. This juxtaposition makes for gripping reading, particularly when Simon is left alone to face the sunless, sub-zero winter months of "lifesucking cold" after his wife is called away to be with her dying father. Yet the author's account is often frustratingly lacking in introspection. Running low on fuel as the cold and darkness press in on him, Simon, in harrowing solitude from November to March, might have paused to offer some self-reflection on the mixed motives of the contemporary survivalist-adventurer?a dilemma discussed in much greater depth in John Krakauer's Into the Wild, for example. Instead, Simon delivers the tropes we have come to expect from this genre (humility in the face of nature, an unfocused critique of "civilization," the romanticization of native cultures), none of which are made more convincing in light of his daredevil behavior and steel-sided ship. Some readers may be troubled by the absence of a reason for this adventure, other than to flirt with death. Editor, Jon Eaton; rights, McGraw-Hill. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
With no winter daylight and temperatures as low as 60 degrees below zero, Bylot Island in Canada's Northwest Territories, across Baffin Bay from northern Greenland, seems an unlikely place to spend the winter, especially alone in a small boat frozen in the ice. Simon, a wandering American with many nautical miles behind him, and his wife, Diana, a well-traveled New Zealander, planned to share the experience. But when her father's illness called Diana home, Simon stayed on alone with only a cat and occasional curious wildlife for companionship. Reading about so much darkness and ice and the hardship and introspection brought about by them sounds grueling, but Simon can write. When not sharing his inner reflections, he provides interesting observations about the Inuits of the region. The experience, combined with Simon's fine narrative, makes this book a good choice for larger public library travel collections.?Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon Univ. Lib., AshlandCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Washington Post
"McGraw-Hill will showcase its latest maritime author, Alvah Simon, who writes of sailing his 36-foot cutter to northern Greenland and surviving three months of darkness frozen deep in the artic ice. A few years ago a book like Simon's would have been consigned to the specialized category of "nautical book," lucky to receive a first printing of 5,000, said his editor, Jonathan Eaton. But sea stories these days are breaking out of the pigeonhole to a general audience: "North to the Night" will get a first printing of 25,000."


From Booklist
Taking leave of humanity, Simon purposely wintered in the Canadian Arctic in 1994^-95. His abode was unusual: a sailboat. He and his wife sailed to Bylot Island, intent on encountering the life of the Inuit and the wildlife of their land. Simon fills his account with conversations with visitors to his boat and observations of polar bears; but such apparitions from the perpetual northern night are brief reliefs from his month-long isolation during the deepest period of winter. When his wife is evacuated to attend her sick father, Simon describes his mental state, telling of Arctic explorers who've gone crazy and expounding on humanity and the environment. After the latter declamations, the reader is as anxious for the ice break-up as Simon is. In the spring, though, his wife returns and so does activity: she nearly drowns, their boat nearly sinks, and then it narrowly escapes entrapment in packed ice. A capably told tale of coping with cold, supported by 50 photos of Simon's campsite. Gilbert Taylor


From Kirkus Reviews
into place north of the Arctic Circle. It may or may not be coincidence that the most popular explorer/adventure books in recent years have taken place at high altitude (Everest) or low latitude (Alaska). A long-time adventure sailor, Simon is a veteran of expeditions in the Southern Hemisphere, including treks into Borneo. But it was the romance of the Arctic that called him for what was to be his and his wife Diana's last major exploration. It took them nearly two years to prepare, including finding the 36-foot steel boat that was to be their home and anchoring for a winter in Maine to practice cold-weather survival. Come spring, they set out for Baffin Bay in search of a cove sufficiently protected to keep their mission from being suicidal, and sufficiently remote to satisfy Alvah's hunger for quest. They barely made safe harbor before the ice began to close in. Soon after, Diana was flown out to New Zealand to be with her terminally ill father. With emergency service shut down for the winter and 24 hours of darkness setting in, Alvah was isolated with their cat, Halifax. His months alone evolved into a spiritual search that changed his life. He also endured extraordinary mechanical challenges that included temporary blindness from carbon monoxide. So transformed was he by his months alone in darkness and cold that when Diana finally returned, he was slow to accept her presence. Besides his soul-searching, there are also evocative observations of Arctic flora and fauna, including a literally death- defying but liberating encounter with ``Nanook,'' the gigantic polar bear of the Arctic. A platform on behalf of preserving the Arctic ecology and its Inuit culture, but no pretense regarding scientific or cultural research here. Simon launched this adventure for his own satisfaction, and he achieved that, perhaps on behalf of us all. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"This is truly an adventure story--an intense and gripping exploration of the extreme reaches of the outer and inner world. It reminds me of Jon Krakauer's work with its blend of suspense and analysis and its sheer ability to communicate why and how people do extraordinary things. Though set in the dark, long Arctic winter, North to the Night is filled with illumination."
-- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"A grand adventure on a vast and awesome scale, wrought onto paper by a writer with a true gift."
--The Washington Times

"The flair of a storyteller and the outlook of a philosopher . . ."
--The Buffalo News


Review
"This is truly an adventure story--an intense and gripping exploration of the extreme reaches of the outer and inner world. It reminds me of Jon Krakauer's work with its blend of suspense and analysis and its sheer ability to communicate why and how people do extraordinary things. Though set in the dark, long Arctic winter, North to the Night is filled with illumination."
-- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"A grand adventure on a vast and awesome scale, wrought onto paper by a writer with a true gift."
--The Washington Times

"The flair of a storyteller and the outlook of a philosopher . . ."
--The Buffalo News