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The premise of this novel is extremely intriguing, and I was eager to delve into the bleak, cold world of Antarctica.

Mitchell is a brilliant biologist and a prominent figure in the growing antinatalist movement. For one month each year he and his colleague Frances live in a childfree utopia of radical equality and science in Antarctica.

They are working on the Anarctos Project: a seed vault in a secret location, an insurance policy against a failing planet. When their helicopter misses its exit rendezvous and strange things begin to happen, they lose a grip on logic and science, and their fallible human emotions take over.

Initially, Mitchell is an unlikeable character – rude and obnoxious, seeing everything through the lens of his stringent beliefs. His heart is steeled against Kate, his ex-wife, a woman he still loves vey deeply but she dared defy him and is now pregnant by another man. Mitchell behaves abhorrently towards her as she flies them out to the vault but once his scientific world is tested, his emotional struggle is very raw and I softened towards him as his complexities were exposed.

I found the concept of the Anarctos Project to be a fascinating one. I enjoyed the shifts in thought processes in both Frances and Mitchell.

This is a complex novel best described as a literary thriller. The first part of the book is slow paced mirroring the life in Antarctica but as things start to unravel the pace picks up and the tension tightens. The exact cause could have been more developed but that is a minor point.

A different but enjoyable read.

Reviewed by Nicola Skinstad