The North Pole
The History of an Obsession
- Published: 27 February 2025
- ISBN: 9780241999622
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 432
A dazzling book - soulful, awe-inspiring, and deeply thought-provoking. Erling Kagge takes readers on a journey they’ll never forget
Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life
An electrifying memoir of a daring journey through Earth’s most unforgiving landscapes. Intrepid explorer and philosopher Erling Kagge masterfully intertwines the adrenaline of his 58-day ski trek to the apex of the world with captivating lore, forgotten histories of past expeditions to the frozen unknown, and profound reflections on survival and our planet's fragility. A bouillabaisse of pure delight.
Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
A philosophical adventurer or perhaps an adventurous philosopher
New York Times
As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Erling Kagge’s decades-long obsession with the North Pole has produced an extraordinary book that defies genre: an elegant travel account, a learned history and a psychological thriller wrapped in one
Anne Applebaum
Erling Kagge is a deeply thoughtful writer who has a strong and very individual style. The North Pole proves to be the perfect subject for him
Michael Palin
Erling Kagge charts a wondrous way to the North Pole, exploring the marvel and complexity of a place that exists both in reality and in our symbolic imagination. A fascinating and richly detailed book
Paul Lynch, Booker Prize-winning author of Prophet Song
It’s rare to find an author and a subject so perfectly matched . . . This book is full of extraordinary stories and wisdom earned through hard experience. "Think ahead, travel light, and leave your fears behind you," one explorer advises. Much like the place itself, The North Pole is memorable, inspiring, unsettling, and poetic
Eric Schlosser
A beautiful book which is as much about our inner world as our outer one, a book that helps us find the vast calm empty spaces within us and returns us to a feeling of being at home in the world
Alain de Botton
Exhilaratingly epic
dg nanouk okpik
It's impossible to read Erling Kagge and not fall in love with the North Pole. His enthusiasm is infectious and his adventures are epic
Elizabeth Kolbert
The North Pole is an enchanting pursuit of a place that lies both far away at the top of our planet and deep within us all
Peter Moore
A wonderful book about the sublime, eerie place known as the North Pole. A place that has doubled as a fertile dreamscape as much as a hard, inhospitable landscape for human beings over the centuries. This is the book of a lifetime, from a rare writer-adventurer whose obsession and passion for his subject know no bounds
Elif Shafak
An adventure-lusting Norwegian explorer vividly chronicles our obsession with the North Pole . . . Engaging . . . bracing . . . fascinating . . . Why go? That masochistic drive is captured with great verve, as are the beauty of the Arctic and its terrifying hazards
Christian House, The Times