Reading Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy and thinking about Antartica. Checked “A Note on the Setting” by the author and confirmed my suspicion that the book is set on Macquarie Island.
Recalled various books I have read about the island, or about Antartica in general. Out of the Ice (2016) by Ann Turner, Ice Bound: The Australian Story of Antartica (2022) by Joy McCann, The Art of Breaking Ice (2023) by Rachael Mead, etc. Also Antarctica (1997) by Kim Stanley Robinson, which I bought in 2019 but am yet to read.
Robinson’s novel is said to have been influenced by his stay in Antartica in 1995 as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. We have a similar program, the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship, which I have daydreamed about for years. McConaghy apparently did a private trip to Macquarie Island and based her book on that experience. It is amazing how a place with a dark and violent history can transform into a beautiful and vibrant place under an experienced writer’s pen.
The number of tourists to Antarctica is said to have grown from ~8,000 in the mid-1990s to ~125,000 in 2023-24 and annual visitor numbers are expected to reach 452,000 by 2033-34. “Put more bluntly, Antarctica may be in danger of joining other globally iconic destinations which have been reportedly loved to death.” (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-26/antarctic-tourism-numbers-expected-to-increase/105329188) Perhaps I should just keep reading about the frozen continent and be done with it. 🙄
(Day 12 #WarmWinterRead #WWR25 via @librarieschangelives)
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 