84 pages • 2 hours read
Matt HaigA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Nora wakes up in Svalbard. She’s sharing a cabin with a woman named Ingrid Skirbekk, professor of geoscience. Nora quickly realizes that she’s hungover and that she’s far more out of shape in this life than in previous lives. The cold here in Svalbard is the type that almost burns. It creeps through layers of thermals and clothing. When Ingrid asks Nora why she became a glaciologist, Nora quips about loving the cold. Nora asks Ingrid the same question to avoid having to answer.
Ingrid discusses the intimate details of her life, and Nora gathers from this trust that the women are close. After Ingrid’s lover died, Ingrid tried forgetting him, but his presence haunted her wherever she went. She fled to the farthest place, Svalbard, yet grief still haunts her because grief operates on memory. Meanwhile, Nora notices a rifle in the cabin and feels, for the first time, like she’s living an adventurous life.
By Matt Haig