Knoji’s Book Nook – Your July Read

This month’s read is: A Woman in the Polar Night

Author: Christiane Ritter

Genre: travel literature, memoir

Release date: 1938

Knoji ratings

For travelling to the Arctic at a fraction of the price: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

For appreciating the comforts of your daily life: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For developing an unhealthy interest in becoming a hunter: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The story in one sentence

Christiane Ritter journeys to Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), a tiny island tucked within the Arctic Circle, where she defies all social expectations about women in the 1930s by hunting, gathering, and braving six months of uninterrupted darkness in a world far removed from the comforts of Germany.

The full story

“Whether I boil, bake, or roast it, the meat always turns out black as coal, and regardless of whether it’s seal blubber or seal cutlets, the flavour remains the same—a peculiar mix of hound and fish.”

Christiane’s husband has fallen in love with Spitsbergen, the last stop before the North Pole. He writes to her about its simple, rugged lifestyle and calls it a kind of therapy after the noise and pressure of industrialised Germany.

He invites her to join him for a year, reassuring her that she won’t be completely alone since the nearest neighbour lives a mere sixty kilometres away.

Her curiosity gets the better of her. Despite warnings from her family, the ship’s captain, and nearly everyone she meets, she sets sail for the small, icy island in the height of summer.

When she arrives, Spitsbergen is in the middle of the polar day, with sunlight that never fades. During this time, she learns to cook and eat seal, and begins to understand what it means to live off such a harsh and unforgiving land.

But before long, the island is plunged into polar night. Now she must survive the same raw conditions, only this time surrounded by constant, unyielding darkness.

Ritter writes with a gentle, whimsical voice. Even as she recounts moments of discomfort and danger, her memoir leaves the reader with a quiet awe for the Arctic and a lingering urge to witness the mountains, birds, and seals in person.

Have a look at the table of contents – which chapter would you be the most excited about?

Why should I read this?

Sometimes, reading about cultural complexities and social experiences can feel exhausting. There is something refreshingly simple about nature writing. It’s also deeply enjoyable to read about people living without any connection to the digital world. Can you imagine spending an entire year without a phone?

Ritter’s way of describing the natural world is both vivid and gentle, and engaging with her writing will help you develop your own use of imagery. Your next imaginative and discursive will definitely impress when you weave in Ritter-style natural descriptions.

Where do I go from here?

You can grab a physical copy of the book here: https://www.booktopia.com.au/moxie-jennifer-mathieu/book/9781444940633.html 

Or you can read it for FREE here: https://ia601508.us.archive.org/32/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.524378/2015.524378.A-Woman_text.pdf