“These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.” So penned Captain Robert Falcon Scott in 1912 as he confronted defeat and death in the crippling subzero temperatures of Antarctica. In this riveting book, Susan Solomon finishes the interrupted tale of Scott and his British expedition, depicting the staggering 900-mile trek to the South Pole and resolving the debate over the journey’s failure.

“An absorbing, fascinating read . . . a book that will appeal to the explorer in everyone.”—Sally Ride

“Solomon argues her case well, in exact and graceful prose.”—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

“Persuasive. . . . [Solomon] reaches important new conclusions about Scott’s expedition.”—Sara Wheeler, New York Times Book Review

“Brilliant. . . . A marvelous and complex book: at once a detective story, a brilliant vindication of a maligned man, and an elegy both for Scott and his men and for the ‘crystalline continent’ on which they died.”—Robert MacFarlane, Guardian

“Solomon has crafted a smart, terrific book and an important addition to polar history.”—Roberta MacInnis, Houston Chronicle