Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester receives the commission of a lifetime when he is charged to navigate Alaska's hitherto impassable Wolverine River, with only a small group of men. The Wolverine is the key to opening up Alaska and its rich natural resources to the outside world, but previous attempts have ended in tragedy.
Forrester leaves behind his young wife, Sophie, newly pregnant with the child he had never expected to have. Adventurous in spirit, Sophie does not relish the prospect of a year in a military barracks while her husband carves a path through the wilderness. What she does not anticipate is that their year apart will demand every ounce of courage and fortitude of her that it does of her husband.
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[I warned you am I a stubborn old man](Tinder Press, 2 August 2016, 433 pages, ebook, bought from Amazon, Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge, a book set in a country that fascinates you)
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I loved every word of To the Bright Edge of the World.
Alaska is a country that has long fascinated me. I love to read about it, fiction and non-fiction. I've never been there but I'd love to. I loved Ivey's novel, The Snow Child so knew I had to read this book for this category.
I thought the structure used in the novel worked really well. The novel is made up of journal entries by Sophie and Allen, reports on Allen's exhibition, illustrations, photographs, newspaper clippings and descriptions of artefacts. All of these different elements worked really well to convey Allen's strange and troubling voyage and Sophie's experiences.
To the Bright Edge of the World has a touch of magic realism. I was cynical at first but the author blends this really well into the narrative.
I enjoyed Sophie's account as well, as she finds a way to wait her husband coming home, which becomes all the more important when personal tragedy strikes. She's quite feisty, pursuing her determination to become a photographer despite shaking heads and sniggers directed towards her. I loved her a little.
To the Bright Edge of the World is one of those books that makes you fall in love with reading or remember why you fell in love. I got completely absorbed into the story, in the lives of Allen and Sophie and learning about the early days of Alaskan exploration. The correspondence in present times, between an ancestor of Sophie and Allen and an Alaskan native he's sent all of the documents about the expedition to was really interesting, especially when they discuss than less than 20 years after Allen's expedition mining and railroads came into the area.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
