I'm about to finish "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing and by god, it's the coldest book I've ever read. It's a fantastic book all around.
I'm looking for cold, wintry, snowy fiction, preferably with a literary bent (I don't love contemporary).
I can think of some great cold short stories: "Master and Man" by Tolstoy. "To Build A Fire" by London. "The Interlopers" by Saki.
What else is there? Thank you my fellow winterfolk.
PS. feel free to throw out some cold nonfiction as well. "Endurance" is so good, I may want to stick with the real world.
by mzingg3
15 Comments
City of Thieves
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Cold nonfiction rec: *Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors* Piers Paul Read is about the story of the Uruguayan rugby team survivors of the 1972 plane crash. You may have seen the newish documentary. The book is such a classic of survival nonfiction and certainly the coldest book I can think of!
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Also Isola by Allegra Goodman.
Edit: just noticed you’re also open to nonfiction. I also went down a bit of an explorers’ rabbit hole after reading Endurance. I liked Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy, and Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age by Reid Mitenbuler.
*Burial Rites* by Hannah Kent is one of my very favorite books and is perfect for this! It’s historical fiction, but focused on the real Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland, in 1830. There’s plenty of cold and snow to pair with bleak vibes. *The Mercies* by Kiran Millwood Hargrave has good cold vibes, too.
(I was already going to recommend *Endurance* for cold nonfiction — I want to shiver just thinking about it.)
The Winter Over by Matthew Iden
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
The great alone. Takes place in Alaska so literally cold and the themes and dark and cold too.
The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
The Blue Fox by Sjón
Not fiction, but based on the other books you referenced, I think you would like Miracle in the Andes. The audiobook was fantastic
Hampton Sides did one about the Early Arctic expeditions iirc
Beartown. its about a small Nordic hockey town.
Not only is it a beautiful exploration of relationships, Every single page in the book will make you feel you are a part of that wintery town.
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, about climbing in the Peruvian Andes. Your breath will freeze in your throat!
*Beartown* by Fredrick Backmann immediately came to mind, but I guess it’s contemporary.