Erling Kagge - Selected Title Author
We are happy to present our selected title author Erling Kagge. He has written The North Pole. The History of an Obsession (original title: Nordpolen. Natur, myter, eventyrlyst og smeltende is). The book is one of NORLA’s Selected Titles of the spring 2025.
What is your book about?
The North Pole is a new history of the world, spanning from The Arctic Ocean was first covered by ice 2,7 million years ago until today when the Arctic is heating up more than any other place.
Long before anyone travelled to the North Pole, people dreamed and speculated about what lay hidden beneath the only fixed point in the universe, the North Star. For 400 years, the world’s most powerful nations— and smaller nations like Norway—competed to get to the top of the world first.
When they finally arrived, they discovered that there wasn’t any there there; only gray, white, and blue ice.
What inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to write a thought-provoking book about nature and our place in it—a personal account of curiosity, wonder, and adventure, of deadly polar expeditions, science, climate change, and geopolitics.
The North Pole is for anyone who’s gazed out at the horizon – and wondered what happens if you just keep walking.
What makes this story truly unique is that, in 1990, together with Børge Ousland, I became the first to ever reach the North Pole without dogs, depots or motorized aids, skiing for 58 days.
Read more
See full presentation of the book here
Read more about the author here
See all NORLA’s Selected Titles for the spring 2025 here
