Staff Book and Media Recommendations

The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage

Anthony Brandt

We currently live in an age plagued by melting polar ice and rising sea levels - but in the Man Who Ate His Boots we are taken to a pre-global warming arctic packed with ice and men with the tenacity to survive a freezing and often violent frozen wasteland.

In Man Who Ate His Boots, author Anthony Brandt illustrates the search for the Northwest Passage from beginning to harrowing end. The British felt it was their destiny to discover a shorter trade route to Asia, and after the Napoleonic Wars they set out to do just that.

Brandt takes the reader through true-life tales of ultimate survival- men faced starvation, freezing temperatures and scurvy in the name of the Northwest Passage. Several voyages did much to discover and map the Canadian archipelago, but the search for the Northwest Passage ended a mystery that has remained unsolved to this day.

Man Who Ate His Boots has many heroes, but tragedy for these brave sailors is never too far away. This book will introduce you to an era of adventure, hubris, and tragedy that is often overshadowed by the passage of time. ~ Emily Z. Brown

Reviewed December 2011