Exploring Svalbard: 9 books from the arctic frontier

A list of books to read from Svalbard

If contemporary life on Svalbard is what interests you, you could go for this one.

Since 2015, Cecilia has called Svalbard home. Along with her partner, Christoffer, and her dog, Grim, she has adjusted to life at the top of the world — where polar bears roam free and northern lights shine bright.

With evocative text and spectacular photography, Cecilia shares the joys and challenges of adapting to an inhospitable climate. Her story begins in the darkness of polar night, and the allure of her remote location is revealed gradually as sunlight returns months later. Through personal stories and firsthand advice, Cecilia offers insight for anyone seeking to thrive in unusual living conditions.

Or you could instead read the first-hand account of one of the first women to live on Svalbard.

In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, to spend a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be a relaxing trip, a chance to “read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my heart’s content”‘, but when Christiane arrives, she is shocked to realize that they are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement, battling the elements every day, just to survive.

This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society’s expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime.

Cold Coast tells the story of another woman, Wanny Woldstad, a young widow, who travels to Svalbard in 1932, daring to enter the Norwegian trappers’ fiercely guarded male domain. She must prove to Anders Sæterdal, her trapping partner, who makes no secret of his disdain, that a woman is fit for the task. Over the course of a Svalbard winter, Wanny and Sæterdal will confront polar bears, traverse glaciers, withstand blizzards and the dangers of sea ice, and hike miles to trap Arctic fox, all in the frigid darkness of the four-month polar night. For Wanny, the darkness hides her own deceptions that, if exposed, speak to the untenable sacrifice of a 1930s woman longing to fulfil a dream.

Cold Coast is a work of fiction, but Wanny Wolstad was a real person. The author is an Australian adventurer, who spends several months of each year working on ship-based expeditions to the polar regions. I feel into a rabbit hole of her adventures, when I googled her name, so be warned.

At the end of a 130-meter long tunnel chiselled out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity’s precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection ever assembled: more than a half billion seeds containing the world’s most prized crops, a safeguard against catastrophic starvation.

The Global Seed Vault, a visionary model of international collaboration, is the brainchild of Cary Fowler, renowned scientist, conservationist, and biodiversity advocate. In SEEDS ON ICE, Fowler tells for the first time the comprehensive inside story of how the “doomsday seed vault” came to be, while the breathtaking photographs offer a stunning guided tour not only of the private vault, but of the windswept beauty and majesty of Svalbard and the enchanting community of people in Longyearbyen.

This is a different kind of book, than what I usually put on my lists, but the Svalbard seed vault intrigues me. I really want to get my hands on this one.

Of course the Svalbard seed vault have also inspired several fictional works. One of them is this chilling mystery by US author Jeanne Mathews.

The Seed Vault was designed to safeguard the earth’s precious collection of seeds from rising sea levels, hurtling asteroids, nuclear holocaust, and every other conceivable disaster. But no fortress, can protect against human corruption and men who have made it their business to gain control of the world’s food supply. When Dinah Pelerin goes on an undercover fact-finding mission to the seed vault, she ends up getting a crash course in the politics of genetic engineering, becomes embroiled in the marital troubles of an American presidential candidate and his enigmatic, Norwegian-born wife. And has a dead body tumble out of the hotel sauna into her arms.

Another chilling novel is this classical mystery from the seventies by Scottish Alistair Maclean, who is the author of no fewer than twenty-nine world bestsellers.

A converted fishing trawler, Morning Rose, carries a movie-making crew across the Barents Sea to isolated Bear Island, well above the Arctic Circle, for some on-location filming, but the script is a secret known only to the producer and screenwriter. And soon members of the movie crew and ship’s company begin to die under mysterious circumstances. The crew’s doctor, Marlowe, finds himself enmeshed in a violent, multi-layered plot in which very few of the persons aboard are whom they claim to be. Marlowe’s efforts to unravel the plot become even more complicated once the movie crew is deposited ashore on Bear Island, beyond the reach of the law or outside help. The murders continue ashore, and Marlowe, who is not what he seems to be either, discovers they may be related to some forgotten events of the Second World War.

Yet another breath-taking arctic adventure inspired by Svalbard – this one with a twist of Norse mythology.

Miners make an unexpected discovery on Svalbard: a cave with ancient petroglyphs and a giant ship that has a dangerous secret. When one of the men touches it, he goes berserk and kills several workers. Archaeologist Anika Wahlgren is called to investigate the ancient ship. Yet she has no idea what she’s about to uncover: NAGLFAR! The ship from Norse mythology that heralds the end of the world. With a team of international researchers she’s determined to get to the bottom of the mystery before even more lives are lost. But there is far more to the ship than meets the eye. The researchers are no longer the only ones who want to take advantage of this secret. And with a blizzard coming in from the north the team is running out of time …

With just 60 Goodreads ratings, this is not a bestseller by any means. But it sounds like it would be worth a read.

From strange mythological ships we turn to ghosts in the dark.

January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely, and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year, but the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice: stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return–when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…

I am personally way too scared of the dark to read something like this, but maybe it is just your thing?

For a fantasy-version of Svalbard, you could go for Philip Pullman’s beloved fantasy series, which can be read from middle school, but is equally enjoyed by adults. It is the only book I have read before featuring Svalbard, which is why it has to go on this list.

The novel follows young Lyra, who lives in Oxford. When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about. Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights.