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One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead Mass Market Paperback – February 22, 2005

by Clare Dudman (Author)

4.1 9 ratings

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A fictional biography of German meteorologist Alfred Wegener follows the groundbreaking scientist from his 1880 birth to his final Arctic exploration in 1930, discussing the offbeat scientific adventures and exploits that marked his life--from a record-breaking long-distance balloon flight in 1906, to his horrific experiences during World War I, to his struggle to defend his controversial theories. A first novel. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dudman artfully channels Wegener s voice so convincingly that her book reads like an artifact of Old World exploration. -- The New Yorker

Intensely suspenseful... A first novel as accomplished as [those of] many veteran writers. -- The Seattle Times

About the Author

Clare Dudman was born in North Wales and has worked as an industrial research and development scientist.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (February 22, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143034731
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143034735
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 0.78 x 7.68 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #9,867,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11,157 in Historical British & Irish Literature
- #113,587 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #308,298 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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4.1 9 ratings

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Clare Dudman

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Clare Dudman is the author of four novels: EDGE OF DANGER (winner of the Kathleen Fidler award); ONE DAY THE ICE WILL REVEAL ALL ITS DEAD (in the US) /WEGENER'S JIGSAW (in the UK) (with the help of an Arts Council of England Writers Award); 98 REASONS FOR BEING and A PLACE OF MEADOWS AND TALL TREES.

She has also contributed to various anthologies including LIKE CANUTE in 'Beacons: Stories For Our Not Too Distant Future'; THE DREADFUL STORY OF HARRIET AND THE MATCHES in 'Prize Flights' (winner of the Cheshire Prize For Literature); THERE'S A GHOST IN MY HOUSE in 'Perverted by Language' and ECZEMA in 'Logorrhea'.

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Paul Halpern

An Outstanding Novel about a Extraordinary Scientist

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2009

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Dudman's novel offers an intriguing look at the life of Alfred Wegener, who began his career in meteorology but went on to propose important scientific theories, most famously continental drift. The book effectively uses ice and cold as an omnipresent theme, helping to explain why Wegener was drawn to expeditions in Greenland, leaving behind the warmth of his colleagues and family members. Through Dudman's spectacular prose, we are able to view the world through Wegener's eyes, witness his grand moment of insight about why continents seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, experience the ridicule he faced about his theories, and ultimately voyage with him to his frigid, untimely death. A wondrous fictional representation of an amazing life-journey.

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E. Jensen

One of the best books I read in 2013

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2014

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I very much enjoyed this novel, based on the life of German scientist Alfred Wegener. It described pretty accurately how a scientist comes to develop a new idea by following wegener's theory of Continental Drift, the precursor to Plate Techtonics.

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Debra Hamel

Equal parts science and poetry

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2006

Clare Dudman's first novel for adults (she published a children's book in 1995) takes the form of a series of vignettes strung bead-like from the memory of her subject, German scientist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930). If Wegener's name isn't familiar to you it's because you don't have a geologist in your life: he is the father of modern plate tectonics. Though recognized today for his contributions, Wegener was derided during his lifetime for his theory of Continental Drift--that the earth's continents are not static but are constantly moving, and that their movement over billions of years can explain various geological and biological phenomena.

Channeling Wegener's voice, Dudman tells his story from childhood, through his days as a student, to adulthood, a full scientific and personal life that included the deaths of siblings, military service, marriage and children, repeated expeditions to the frozen reaches of Greenland, and ridicule at the hands of his scientific peers. Occasionally the older Wegener, the man telling the story, interjects to remark on his youthful pomposity, say, or to hint at future events. But for the most part one is allowed to lose oneself in the reading, which very often means finding yourself alongside Wegener on the Greenlandic ice, behind a sledge in minus 30 or 40 or 50 degrees, the white underfoot difficult to distinguish from the white above the horizon:

"I look no farther than the pony's hindquarters. To look any farther would be to see the bank of snow, appearing almost vertically in front of me. I don't want to see. I don't want to know. If I can just travel as far as the pony, if I can just do that. I look no farther. I celebrate each one of these small victories in silence, and then go on again. Sometimes I tell myself that when I reach that point just a little ahead of me we will stop and rest, or stop and make camp. But we don't. ... There is just more and more snow, more and more ice, and the only thing that changes is that sometimes it is deeper, sometimes softer, sometimes breaks away in pieces, and sometimes groans a little under foot or crunches. But it is all just snow. Or ice. Part of a slope that doesn't seem to end, just goes on and on, until my clothes are wet with effort."

When you walk away from this book what you're sure to take with you are Dudman's descriptions of ice, its different textures and temperatures and colors, rendered so vividly on the page you can almost feel its cold.

One Day the Ice Will Reveal All its Dead is not a straightforward account of a man, nor quite like anything I've read before. Often Dudman approaches the episodes of Wegener's life that she has elected to include obliquely, from some wholly unexpected angle. Here, for example, is Wegener during his days as an astronomy student at the University of Berlin, adding his corrections to the Alfonsine astronomical tables:

"It is a printed copy I hold now, a late edition, the famous Parisian one of 1545. The paper is cream, thick, wizened with age, and the printing is imperfect--some of the curved Latin letters have bled a little from their moulded fonts--for this is a new art, not yet properly mastered. The owners of these tables have made notes, and with time the ink has become a gentle sepia, unobtrusive, part of the book. I too am adding parts of myself to the pages: oils are leaking from the skin of my hands and molecules of fat are smearing themselves invisibly on its surface. Part of the book is also becoming part of me: some of the ink is leaching minutely from the paper and into my pores, and some of the grains of the paper are detaching themselves, floating into the air and being drawn irretrievably into my lungs. In these small ways we are blending together, the wizard and his book of spells."

It is of course always true to say that no two writers will get across the same piece of information in precisely the same way, but given an infinite number of writers instructed to describe Wegener at his astronomical computations, I can't imagine any producing a picture remotely like the one Dudman paints here.

My complaints about the book are few, and almost entirely unrelated to the writing itself. I found Dudman's final chapters slightly confusing, those in which she details Wegener's last, fatal expedition to Greenland. The explorer's movements might have been easier to follow, however, if a series of maps tracing Wegener's expeditions had been included in the book. I would also have appreciated the addition of a timeline and photographs. Perhaps these can be included in future editions.

Dudman has managed to blend the various aspects of Wegener the man--the scientist and explorer, sibling and son and husband and father--into a book that is equal parts science and poetry. The result is a startling accomplishment, and well worth the read.

[Disclaimer: I have come to know the author of One Day the Ice Will Reveal All its Dead virtually, through our respective blogs and by email. I hope that our acquaintance has not influenced my review of her book.]

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Donald Mitchell

Exciting Scenes of Daring Adventures in Greenland

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2004

Those who love to read stories about dangerous, arduous expeditions to extend knowledge in Arctic regions will find this book to be a fine addition to the literature. From the preface discussion of ice through to the ending chapter, you will feel yourself enduring the difficulties of the various explorers as they trek where no one had gone before and measure what had not been studied before.
Normally, I prefer to read nonfiction books about scientists but in this case Ms. Dudman's imaginative, sensitive writing makes the novelistic journey to understanding Wegener a rewarding one.
Today, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener is best known for putting together the first well documented hypothesis about continental drift. But even in that context he is not well known. His ideas were widely derided during his life by geologists who disliked his poaching into their territory without academic credentials. As a result, memories of him and his work had largely died out by the time that continental drift was proven in the 1960s through the use of research methods unavailable during Wegener's life.
But Wegener was a man of many modes. As a young man, he and his brother established a duration record for balloon flight, and he participated in three scientific studies in Greenland . . . heading the last one at age 49. He also made scientific contributions to our understanding of how rain is formed and that meteorites helped produce many of the craters on the moon.
I decided to read the book because I wanted to know more about his role in the continental drift hypothesis. That aspect of the book receives relatively little attention, and I came away little more informed than I was when I began except to know more about what his critics had to say at the time. I graded the book down by one star for its lack of emphasis in this area.
What I found surprising and exciting was that Wegener was such an intrepid and successful Artic explorer. The parts about him in Greenland are very well done. If you want to read a book with that kind of orientation, I can strongly recommend this one. It will be a five star effort for you.
After the preface, the book gets off to a slow start in describing his early years. Be patient though. By page 52, the book begins to hit its pace. By page 71, you will find yourself engrossed in a way that will continue to the end.
Where can curiosity take you? What have you noticed that speaks to you . . . that no one else understands? How can you explain what it means so that others will see what you see?

4 people found this helpful

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Mike M

Best book I've ever read. Inspirational. Heartfelt. Scientific.

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2015

My Dad found this book at a bargain store for two bucks and gave it to me for Christmas when I was 20 years old (2008ish). Back then i was a college kidd who really only cared about parties and my gf, and I hardly read, but this book had me glued for several days straight. I don't know why exactly, but I just loved the story about his explorations of the bitter cold and unforgiving Greenland ice, his loving relationship with his understanding and concerned wife, and the science. After reading this book I went out and bought snow shoes and started walking through the woods in my backyard and even spent one night out there alone with just my sleeping bag. Inspirational. Heartfelt. Scientific. Straight up best book i have ever read.

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