The horror of eternal ice, the beauty of untouched landscapes, the longing for cold purity, the birth of mountaineering and winter sports – Bernd Brunner has written a luminous, sweeping survey of winter, spanning from ancient traditions to modern pastimes, and profiling creatures and people who endure winter’s harshest expression.
A farmer painstakingly photographs 5,000 snowflakes, with each one dramatically different from the next. Indigenous peoples thrive on frozen terrain, where famous explorers perish. Icicles reach deep underwater, then explode. Bears hibernate outside candle-lit cabins, hikers are blinded by snow, and huskies pull sleds across glacial lakes. Bernd Brunner embarks on a search for the stories and moods inspired by winter in different regions and times, going back as far as the Ice Age. He entwines the spectacular with the everyday, expertly capturing the essence of a beloved yet dangerous season, which is all the more precious in an era of climate change
Filled with insights from the history of perception and culture, Brunner’s book is an exciting and knowledgeable account of the mythology of winter.
