To the Bright Edge of the World

A 19th century adventure story of a small group of American military venturing through Alaska along the harsh Wolverine River, in order to document terrain and locals. The story is told in the form of letters and diary entries, from the men, from the Colonel's young wife who stayed back at the barracks, and even an ancestor and historian in modern times. Novels told in the form of diaries and text clippings (an epistolary novel as wiki just taught me) is usually not something I enjoy, but all parts were equally engaging and the audiobook also took off the usual edge I assume.

The story finds a good way of weaving magical realism - shamans, shape-shifting, birthing kids from spruce trees - into the elementary themes of survival and adventure. I mostly enjoyed the women of the story: Sophie, the stay-at-home wife who rebelled from strict society by discovering her love and destiny for field photography, and Nat'aaggi - the mysterious Indian woman who accompanies the scouting party, where one can never tell if she is in their care of if they are in hers.