To the Bright Edge of the World: A Novel

I loved Eowyn Ivey's first book, "The Snow Child" and was so excited to see that she had another book coming out. I was not disappointed! Ivey's second book "To The Bright Edge of the World" was as beautiful and wondrous as her first, but overall had a completely different feeling.Instead of diving into the magical, and creating a fairy tale, Ivey balances us on a knife edge with myth, magic, and elemental beauty on one side and the threat of death on the other. We are swept along with Colonel Allen Forrester on his journey to explore the Wolverine, in awe of the tremendous, indescribable beauty of Alaska but constantly anchored by the harsh realities of that land. The amazing cold, starvation, and life-threatening natural events are balanced perfectly with their first views of glaciers and the Aurora Borealis. The desire to explore and learn is tempered by the harshness of the world - the men are often just beat down by the extremities of their journey. Ivey then adds an extra layer of fear with the unknown magical and mythical elements that the discovery party encounters with the native Indians they meet. The effect is both beautiful and profound. It raises questions of what we lose the more we discover and what we are willing to let go of when we go seeking - whether that be a path through the wilderness, gold, minerals, filling one's heart and mind with new vistas, or redemption. Some things we are more willing to shed than others, but we can never really know what that will mean for us as individuals or for society at large. In the end, we need to learn to love and live with what we have here and now.The travails of the expedition party are balanced by the story of the Colonel's wife - left behind at Vancouver Barracks to forge her own path. Her story line is unique and fascinating in it's own right and I could have read a whole book on the life of Sophie Forrester. Forging your own path is a central theme for the book. The journeys the characters take to be to able to do just that are all interesting, but in the end it just takes courage and conviction for all them - Colonel Forrester, Sophie, Lieutenant Pruitt, Nattie, Josh and Walt - to strike their own path through the wilderness, whether that be the literal wilds of Alaska, the confines of female society in 1885 for both white women and Indian women alike, the psychological damage of war, or the inertia of modern society and its expectations.I devoured this book and it filled me a desire to go out into the world and see new things and to be brave. I do not like the cold at all, but this book made me long for the cold air, wide-open space and magic of Alaska. For now though, I will be contented with the wondrous feeling one can only get from a satisfying, excellent book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was slow going at first, and to be honest, I wasn’t even sure I was going to finish it because I just couldn’t get into it. But I’m not a quitter! Maybe 30-50 pages in, the story got better and better. I loved the characters, the imagery, the different points of views and voices. It was unexpectedly humorous in parts, which lent so much color to the characters. I typically don’t find that in a book set in the late 1800s. I wasn’t a fan of the poetry from Pruitt, or his storyline at all for that matter, but everything else I loved!

To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn IveyI don't think my review will do this beautiful, gorgeous novel justice. I am going to make a new category of my reader's shelves all the stars in the world. Reading this masterpiece by Eowyn Ivey, thinking about it, still gives me a runner's high. My endorphin's are still buzzing with excitement every time I think about it. It was Soooooooooooooo good!Here is an excerpt from the book:THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by Edmund Stedman, 1878COULD we but knowThe land that ends our dark, uncertain travel,Where lie those happier hills and meadowslow,---Ah, if beyond the spirit's inmost cavil,Aught of that country could we surely know,Who would not go?Might we but hearThe hovering angel's high imagined chorus,Or catch, betimes, with wakeful eyes and clear,One radiant vista of the realm before us,---Ah, who would fear?Were we quite sureTo find the peerless friend who left us lonely,Or there, by some celestial stream as pure,To gaze in eyes that were lovelit only, ----This weary mortal coil, were we quite sure,Who would endure?This whole novel is written in breathtaking poetic prose. The story takes place in the most remote Alaskan territory in 1885. Lieut Col Allen Forrester and five other individuals are the first to travel and take pictures, map and take temperatures for the military. In the author's it is said that this novel was very much inspired by the real life journey into Alaska by Lieutenant Henry T. Allen. "His Report of an Expedition to the Copper, _Tanana and Koyubuk Rivers in the Territory of Alaska" was both a starting ground and a constant source of information. The author also cites, too many other references that were used to write this book.There is so much vivid description of cascading waterfalls, canyons, mountains with their ever-white peaks. I felt like I was right there with these characters who come to life on every page. This is one of the best books I have ever read for its beauty. Splitting glaciers, soaring mountains, "gray rivers that roar down from the glaciers, mountains and spruce valleys as far as the eye can see. It is a grand, inscrutable wilderness. Never are the people here allowed to forget that each of us is alive only by a small thread."I highly recommend this book for everybody. Especially, if you love a story well told. Lovers of the unforgiving remoteness of Alaska, before when it was populated with the indigenous Indians, before it was pillaged for it's metals and coal. The story, for which I have not even explored. I promise you won't be sorry for putting it ahead on your to be read list. This novel is by the same author who wrote "The Snow Child", which I am going to read next, only because this whole book took my breath away.With many grateful thanks to Net Galley, Eowyn Ivey you are so talented and the Publisher for my treasured digital copy for a fair and honest review, which the pleasure has been all mine!