Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Alaska has never looked as cold, chilling or criminally dangerous..
Tundra Kill
What you need to know before your trail
Nathan Active: An Inupiaq born in Chukchi, but to an unwed teenage mother who knew she was unfit to raise him. So she adopted him out to white schoolteachers, who soon moved to Anchorage and raised him there.
Nathan resented his birth mother for giving him away, and grew up trying to pretend she and his birth place didn’t exist. He considered himself an Anchorage boy and set out on a law enforcement career by joining the Alaska State Troopers. Working and living comfortably now in K, he is keen to keep things good as he has worked to get to this point. When the rather nice looking governor turns up though, she is keen to work in another direction and probably undo all of his good work.
Travel Guide
Chukchi (Kotzebue) through the eyes, of both Stan Jones and Nathan Active is a fascinating yet unrelenting landscape. It is remote, harsh and unforgiving. It is brutal , raw and strandles both the past and the modern day. The Inupiat people are proud people and self sufficient. Fearful of outsiders and even if someone who is from there like Nathan but who is considered ‘ too white’ is not necessarily going to be welcome here. These people, they own this land, this is their home, work and play – their livelihood. They are also proud and want to respect their traditions and culture whilst also having to adapt to the more modern world. Travelling by sledges and dogs sometimes turns into riding snow machines – a good example of a place affected by changes outside of it.
This Alaska is raw and brutal. Kotzebue is even extremely remote by Alaskan standards. You will never forget your visit here although you will probably have frostbite on your hands by the time you’ve finished it. Evocative and as as the author himself says ‘ is on the edge of the earth”
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Web: sjbooks.com
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