Reviews

Arctic Dreams is a celebration of a place in which the potential for catastrophe goes hand in hand with the sublime. It is the story of the animals and people that live in the Arctic. Lopez describes both the massive migrations of animals by land and sea and air, and the epic voyages of explorers. He writes of the steep-sided monoliths of ice that will shatter a ship swept too close in a gale, of the peculiar light effects of the Arctic and of the distant mountain that seems so real and is yet a mirage. Barry Lopez's book is a monumental, magical work about landscape at its most elemental and about man and his dreams. This landmark of travel writing is the work of a writer who effortlessly combines the skills of a naturalist and historian with the wonder-inducing vision of a poet and an artist.