The Beirut hostage and author of An Evil Cradling, who writes like a dream, has always had a fascination with Alaska. This is his journey in that awe-inspiring land.
Brian Keenan's fascination with Alaska began as a small boy while reading Jack London's wondrous Call of the Wild. With a head full of questions about its inspiring landscape and a heart informed by his love of desolate and barren places, Brian Keenan sets out for Alaska to discover its four geographical quarters from snowmelt in May to snowfall in September, and en route, finds a land as fantastical as a fairytale but whose vastness has a very peculiar type of allure... From dog-mushing on a frozen lake beneath the whirling colours of the aurora borealis to camping in a two dollar tent in the tundra of the arctic circle, Brian Keenan seeks out the ultimate wilderness experience and along the way, encounters hard-core survivalists who know what struggle and endurance mean from their daily battle with nature to exist.He discovers that true wilderness is as much a state of mind as it is a place.And ultimately to make Alaska home, one must surrender to the land.
'An excellent travelogue…full of one-off characters vividly brought to life…an engaging and articulate book that does much to illuminate America's Last Frontier' Daily Telegraph
'Wonderfully evocative and at times quite extraordinarily moving. There are many moments you carry with you long after you've turned the last page. Magic' Sunday Tribune
'Combines a Bill Bryson like directness with an intimate soul searching agenda, reminiscent in places of the introspective insights that made An Evil Cradling so memorable' The Herald
Author
About Brian Keenan
Brian Keenan is a writer and poet. AN EVIL CRADLING is the story of his four years' captivity in Beirut and is recognized as a non-fiction classic. He is also the author of a travel book, BETWEEN EXTREMES with John McCarthy, and a novel, TULLOUGH.
