Overview

***Winner of the 2025 Electric Book Award*** An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, THE GYRE spins one man's search for meaning into an astonishing saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Arkady Afanasyev is a nineteenth-century Russian monk who aims to be the northernmost holy man in the world when he hitches a ride to Spitsbergen, a remote island considered by most to be a no man's land. As he struggles across the tundra, he's haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters including hearth spirits, sea demons, and the Twelve Sisters of Scurvy. Amid their uncanny influence and the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.

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9781946580627

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Reviews

""... an enthralling story of flawed, fragile humanity and the uncanny redemptive power of nature at its most brutal."" -Lynn Coady, author of HELLGOING ""A gripping novel-both a rip-roaring yarn and a deep inquiry into what makes us human ... with dazzling results."" -Colin Dickey, author of GHOSTLAND and AFTERLIVES OF THE SAINTS ""... an absolutely astonishing saga, packed at every turn with innumerable tangential sagas of survival, magic, incomprehensible courage and persistence. ... Fearlessly imagined and capably written, Stacy Carlson has created a particular, complex, and searingly unforgettable mythology."" -Joan Frank, author of JUNIPER STREET and LATE WORK ""Mythic journeys, fairy tales of ice and snow, sailors' vodka-addled and lusty dreams, a monk's poetic yearnings ... we encounter story upon story strung together, like pearls, showing us how we are connected to the water, the ice, the ground, the light, and each other."" -Kathryn Nuernberger, author of HELD

Author Information

Stacy Carlson is a novelist, naturalist, and educator. Publishers Weekly called her debut novel, AMONG THE WONDERFUL, ""Intelligent, engrossing, and utterly unique."" Stacy's essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, Post Road, Inkwell, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and residencies from the Mesa Refuge, The Arctic Circle, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Signal Fire. Her background includes work as a historical ecologist, fish cannery worker, hot springs caretaker, and hiking guide in Big Sur. She grew up between mountains and sea in the Pacific Northwest and has lived in New England, New York, Northern California, and the Upper Midwest.

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