A team of six archaeologists from the United States, England, and
Scotland assembles at the beginning of the Arctic summer to unearth
traces of the lost Viking settlements in Greenland. But as they sink
into uneasy domesticity, there is news of an epidemic back home, and
their communications with the outside world fall away. Facing a
Greenland winter for which they are hopelessly ill-equipped, Nina, Ruth,
Catriona, Jim, Ben, and Yianni, knowing that their missives may never
reach their loved ones, write final letters home. These letters make up
the narrative of Cold Earth, with each section of the book composed of
one character's first-person perspective in letter form.
In this exceptional and haunting debut novel, Moss weaves a rich
tapestry of personal narrative, history, love, grief, and naked
survival. Cold Earth is both a heart-pounding thriller and a highly
sophisticated novel of ideas.