Winner of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario's 2016 Young Authors Award
Winner of the 2017 Louise de Kiriline Award for Nonfiction
Adam Shoalts was no stranger to the wilderness. He had hacked his way through jungles, stared down bears and climbed mountains. But, one spot on the map called out to him irresistibly. Cutting through the forbidding landscape of the Hudson Bay Lowlands is a river no hunter, no explorer, has left any record of paddling. It was this river that Shoalts was obsessively determined to explore.
What Shoalts discovered as he paddled downriver appeared in no satellite imagery or map: a series of waterfalls that could easily have killed him. Just as astonishing was the media reaction when he got back to civilization. He was crowned "Canada's Indiana Jones" and was feted by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and congratulated by the governor general. Shoalts had proved that the world is bigger than we think.
Gripping and often poetic, Alone Against the North is a classic adventure story of single-minded obsession, physical hardship, and the restless sense of wonder that every explorer has in common. Shoalts's story makes it clear that the world can become known only by setting out into the unfamiliar, where every step is different from the one before and something you may never have imagined lies around the next curve in the river.
Shoalts Never Disappoints!
"I really enjoyed this book; I don't want the four-star review to deter anyone from picking it up. Shoalts is not only an impressive explorer, he also has a talent for recounting his journeys through text. Every step of his journey is interesting and engaging and he describes everything in such vivid detail that you can completely immerse yourself in his words and feel transported into his memories. I enjoyed reading this book; I simply enjoyed his first memoir more, so I felt that I had to remove a star for that reason. I can't wait to pick up the next one!"