South Pole Station
When the opportunity arises to join the National Science Foundation’s Artists & Writers Program in Antarctica, Cooper Gosling jumps at the chance—and finds herself in the company of others who are similarly strange enough for Polar life. When they are joined by a fringe scientist who claims climate change is a hoax, their community is rattled, bringing them to the center of a global controversy.
A ramblingly entertaining first novel.
The New York Times Book Review
Unmoored by a recent family tragedy, Cooper Gosling is adrift at thirty and on the verge of ruining her career. So when the opportunity arises to join the National Science Foundation’s Artists & Writers Program in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance—and finds herself in the company of others who are similarly strange enough for Polar life, a group of eccentrics motivated by desires as ambiguous as her own. When they are joined by a fringe scientist who claims climate change is a hoax, the Polies’ already-imbalanced community is rattled, bringing them to the center of a global controversy and threatening the ancient ice chip they call home.
Awards
Lascaux Prize in Fiction
A ramblingly entertaining first novel.
The New York Times Book Review
South Pole Station crackles with energy.
The Washington Post
A lovely, satirical, and emotionally complex novel.
LitHub
With South Pole Station’s satire, science, wry wit, and warmth, Ashley Shelby has written one of the best novels of the year.
Shelf Awareness
This is a fascinating novel, loaded with interesting history of Antarctic exploration, current scientific operations, and the living and working conditions of those folks brave enough to endure six months of darkness and six months of daylight.
Publishers Weekly
Shelby’s first novel eschews easy choices and treats interpersonal relations, grief, science, art, and political controversy with the same deft, humorous hand. Readers will find characters to love, suspect, and identify with among Cooper’s fellow Polies and won’t forget them easily.
Booklist
Shelby’s writing is pithy and funny . . . In this unusual, entertaining first novel, Ashley Shelby combines science with literature to make a clever case for scientists’ and artists’ shared conviction that ‘the world could become known if only you looked hard enough.’
NPR
