The North Pole

Author Erling Kagge
Narrator Atli Gunnarsson
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Run Time 11 hours and 27 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Biography: adventurers and explorers, Climate change, History, History of other geographical groupings and regions, Memoirs, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Popular philosophy, The environment, Travel and holiday, Travel writing.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Throughout recorded human time, few places on Earth have inspired as much fascination as the North Pole. This is an otherworldly place where the sun rises and stays aloft for six whole months before setting, plunging the expanse of ice and water into darkness for half a year.

Foot-stepping alongside Erling Kagge, who ventured to the North Pole in the spring of 1990, we hear the story of the North Pole as never told before. From Herodotus who first wondered what the northernmost point of our planet might be like, to the intrepid early cartographers who mapped the world, and the legendary expeditions led by Fridtjof Nansen and Robert Peary – the first polar explorer global celebrities – who were in the grip of a dangerous obsession to get to the North Pole first. What emerges is a new history of the world, spanning thousands of years, as seen from the ‘silver-shining vacantness’ of the North Pole.

Blending memories from Kagge’s own 1990 trip with this epic history, The North Pole is an adventure story, a book about enacting hidden human dreams, about difficult fathers and their difficult sons, and a psychological record of what it means to keep putting one foot in front of the other in the face of adversity. It is for anyone who’s gazed out at the horizon – and wondered what happens if you just keep walking.

‘Extraordinary . . . an elegant travel account, a learned history and a psychological thriller wrapped in one’ ANNE APPLEBAUM

‘Erling Kagge is a deeply thoughtful writer . . . The North Pole proves to be the perfect subject for him’ MICHAEL PALIN

‘The book of a lifetime, from a rare writer-adventurer whose obsession and passion for his subject know no bounds’ ELIF SHAFAK

‘A beautiful book’ ALAIN DE BOTTON

'As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted’ SIR RANULPH FIENNES

© Erling Kagge 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

An adventure that can’t be topped . . . Kagge journeys into the past to uncover the myths, politics and pure joy of the northernmost point on Earth . . . heart-catching . . . a big book of ripping yarns and existential angst . . . fabulous

Observer

Thrilling . . . a compelling mix of history, memoir and polar arcana . . . Coming to the end of this strange, often beautiful book, it becomes clear that The North Pole is in fact a love story, a record of an infatuation

The Telegraph

An adventure-lusting Norwegian explorer vividly chronicles our obsession with the North Pole . . . Engaging . . . bracing . . . fascinating . . . Why go? That masochistic drive is captured with great verve, as are the beauty of the Arctic and its terrifying hazards

The Times

Erling Kagge’s decades-long obsession with the North Pole has produced an extraordinary book that defies genre: an elegant travel account, a learned history and a psychological thriller wrapped in one

Anne Applebaum

Erling Kagge is a deeply thoughtful writer who has a strong and very individual style. The North Pole proves to be the perfect subject for him

Michael Palin

Kagge’s achievement in this compelling, expansive book is to present the North Pole in all its aspects – not just as a geographical point sought by generations of explorers, but also as a dream, myth and mirror . . . gripping . . . epic

Times Literary Supplement

A beautiful book which is as much about our inner world as our outer one, a book that helps us find the vast calm empty spaces within us and returns us to a feeling of being at home in the world

Alain de Botton

As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

A wonderful book about the sublime, eerie place known as the North Pole. A place that has doubled as a fertile dreamscape as much as a hard, inhospitable landscape for human beings over the centuries. This is the book of a lifetime, from a rare writer-adventurer whose obsession and passion for his subject know no bounds

Elif Shafak

Revealing and highly readable

Literary Review

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