Andrea Pitzer on a story of Arctic survival

“I came across the story of Dutch explorer William Barents when I was researching some islands called Nova Zembla, north of Siberia, for my first book. I found a brief mention of an expedition who had overwintered there – I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard this story. This was pre-satellite phones, pre-GPS. They were off every map in existence. I decided then that I had to write a book about it.”