Barnes & Noble

Women Who Travel Book Club: 9 New Books to Read on Your Winter Getaway

"In February, Pushkin Press is releasing a new edition of A Woman in the Polar Night, a memoir originally published in 1938 by an Austrian woman, Christiane Ritter, who spent a full year with her husband and another hunter in a hut in Svalbard, the Norwegian high Arctic island group. The physical hardship and risk of this experience is difficult to overstate (setting cold and hunger aside, the stove that constantly fills their tiny living space with smoke would be enough to send me walking home across the glaciers), but Ritter, whose prose manages to be both spartan and, at times, ecstatic, thrives on the challenge. So much is left unsaid in this book—like what, for example, is the deal with this marriage?—but that sense of mystery only adds to its appeal. A beautiful, timeless read. —Maggie Shipstead, contributor" - Meaghan Kenny