A BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE, 2021
Diane Glancy once again puts Indigenous women at the center of
American history in her account of a young Inupiat woman who survived a
treacherous arctic expedition alone. **
**
"This moving retelling of a heroic woman's journey demonstrates that
history lives through an intimate connection between two women beyond
time's borders."--Booklist, starred review
In September 1921, a young Inupiat woman named Ada Blackjack traveled to
Wrangel Island, 200 miles off the Arctic Coast of Siberia, as a cook and
seamstress, along with four professional explorers. The expedition did
not go as planned. When a rescue ship finally broke through the ice two
years later, she was the only survivor.
Diane Glancy discovered Blackjack's diary in the Dartmouth archives and
created a new narrative based on the historical record and her vision of
this woman's extraordinary life. She tells the story of a woman facing
danger, loss, and unimaginable hardship, yet surviving against the odds
where four "experts" could not. Beyond the expedition, the story
examines Blackjack's childhood experiences at an Indian residential
school, her struggles as a mother and wife, and the faith that enabled
her to survive alone on a remote island in the Arctic Sea.
Glancy's creative telling of this heroic tale is a high mark in her
award-winning hybrid investigations of suffering, identity, and Native
American history.
