The Solitude of Thomas Cave - Softcover

'Harding's exquisite novel is a masterpiece of mood and location ... a profound meditation on survival, atonement and faith' Daily Telegraph 'Her descriptions of scenery are outstanding ... Thomas Cave's ordeal should hold readers fast in an icy grip' Independent 'I read it almost at one sitting and thought it was an astonishing and risk-taking piece of imaginative writing. Her language is superb - evocative and poetic. She conjures up a mysterious and haunting world that lingers in the imagination' Charles Palliser 'Congratulations on a really brilliant book - a modern classic, a unique story wonderfully told. Thomas Cave will live on' Brian Patten

It is August 1616. The whaling ship Heartsease has ventured deep into the Arctic, but the crew must return home before the ice closes in. All, that is, save Thomas Cave. He makes a wager that he will remain there alone until the next season, though no man has yet been known to have survived a winter this far north. So he is left with provisions, shelter, and a journal - should he not live to tell the tale.