In 2015, in a tragic natural disaster, a massive avalanche descended on the small Arctic Norwegian city of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, leveling eleven houses and killing a child and a young father. In this arresting book, journalist Line Nagell Ylvisåker explores the effects of a warming planet up close and personal, from inside a remote community intimately attuned to its environment.

Ylvisåker introduces readers to her friends and neighbors, including dedicated meteorologists racing to anticipate future disasters and a veteran trapper who harbors doubts about climate change even as he bears witness to a constantly shifting landscape. Blending memoir, long-form journalism, and scientific reportage, she provides an intimate picture of life in a place where the effects of climate change can be seen in all their startling reality—and a compelling and hopeful argument for collective and cooperative action across the globe.

Line Nagell Ylvisåker is an editor, journalist, and writer living in the high Arctic. She has received several writing awards over her years working for Svalbardposten, where she now serves as editor in chief. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Oslo and has given lectures on climate change.

Kelsey Camacho is a writer and translator who guides expeditions, cares for sled dogs, and leads local writing workshops. Her work can be found in Nowhere Magazine, Bitch Media, Entropy, Portland Review, and elsewhere. Originally from North Carolina, she’s based in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

Preface
Falling Down
A Black, Wet Autumn and New Avalanches
Sleep, Little Sprout
Climate on Speed
The Town
The Trapper and the Pope
Essential Stardust
The Mountain
Trees of Stone
A Great Paradox
Royal Unrest
The Sea, the Fjords, and the Ice That Disappeared
Plants in Ice and Permafrost
Almost a Gummy Bear
Grandmother in the Snowstorm
Can’t Make Everything Safe
Into Safe Houses
Three Years After Surviving the Avalanche
Afterword
Update: The Warmest Summer
Acknowledgments
Sources