At the End of the World: Notes on a 1941 Murder Rampage in the Arctic and the Threat of Religious Extremism, Loss of Indigenous Culture, and Danger of Digital Life

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

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Description

• Originally published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2016; hardcover sold 3,000 copies
• The remarkable story of a series of murders that occurred in a remote corner of the Arctic in 1941
  
• About people, technology, and the loss of connection to our natural world
• Use of religion as a reason to kill in many societies; generational trauma
• Touches on Arctic languages and beliefs; ethnographic stories, tales, myths, superstitions, and taboos from Inuit elders

Reviews

Praise forAt the End of the World:

"A dark and twisted story of religion, violence, and lasting trauma, this true crime book is chilling in more way than one." Bustle

Millmans book is a plea for keeping the sanctity of the unique cultures and landscape of the Far North. Explorers Journal

A poetic assertion of what it means to be a human being in the 21st century...Perhaps Millmans greatest accomplishment is that, despite its dark implications,At the End of the Worldis a pleasure to read. Adventures NW

"A smart, emotional, and thought-provoking analysis of a lingering trauma. Millman has created a quiet and stunning investigative masterpiece." Booklist(starred)

"[You] should be impressed with the manner by which Millman connects the dots...he skillfully provides parallels to contemporary times on the dangers of one culture infiltrating another." Kirkus

A bizarre series of cult murders receives a fresh look inAt the End of the World Shelf Awareness

"Millman tells this tale in a free-flowing narrative style, interspersing his interviews of the remaining survivors and their relatives with a history of the region (including a sardonic account of the filming of the 1922 documentary "Nanook of the North" on the mainland), a liberal peppering of quotes from diverse authors on nature and on technology and the consequences of old and new cultures clashing." WBUR's The ARTery

"This tragedy is compelling." Virginia Quarterly Review

"Lawrence Millman is a true original. The Arctic seems his natural landscape; its as if he knows how to eavesdrop on the spirit world there.At the End of the Worldputs literature of the North into a hypnotic fugue state, and its just whopping good storytelling. People dont just read Millman, they collect him." Howard Norman, author ofThe Ghost ClauseandThe Bird Artist

"At the End of the World is a lamentation. And not for the loss of life at the hands of insane murderers. But the loss of connection to our natural world. I think Millmans struggle to write the story (at least he claims to have struggledto my eyes, words flow freely and wonderfully from his Ticonderoga Tri-Write No. 2) comes from this realization." Fungi

"Well-written and deeply philosophical." Alaska Dispatch

"An enlightening, beautifully constructed read." What's Nonfiction

"Unique and compelling...At the End of the World is a one of the more unique historical crime books I've ever come across and most certainly worth your attention. There's a lot to think about in this one and, more importantly, a lot we should be thinking about." Coleen Mondor,TinyLetter.com

"Lawrence Millman is ... a master writer, naturalist, and adventurer." Robert Pyle, author ofMariposa Road

"Millman delivers an artful jeremiad and a hell of an exciting story." Gary Moore, author ofBurning in China

Quite the best thing Ive read in a long time. Paul Kingsnorth, creator of theDark Mountain Project

A lovely, elegiac, and mysterious book! John Griesemer, author ofNo One Thinks of Greenland

Larry MillmansAt the End of the Worldis many things: a loving description of Inuit life; an account of the end of the world that had already happened; and a jeremiad against the computer, all told in a voice that is a cross between the dark aphorisms of E M Cioran and the timeless portraits in Chatwins The Songlines. In it you will learn that Thoreau is the only person in the afterlife without a computer, and see a carving of Donald Duck, with the detailed body of an Eider. Read it and weep for the Old Ways that we have lost.Steve Bodio

"At the End of the Worldis a brilliant and original book by one of the boldest and most visionary writers of our era, or any other." Howard Mosher

At the End of the World is an eloquent lament for a dying way of a life, and a prophetic warning about our own dangerous shift from the natural to the a virtual world. Outpost

"Millman guides us to a place where spirits inhabit stone, snow, and seals, keep us company, and make our lives whole in their embrace. Ignoring reason and propriety, he opens our hearts to survival, to magic, and to ecstasy." Michael Morrison, co-author ofJourney Into Climate

"[Millman's] ideas about our natural world and what we are doing to it and to ourselves crackle with a meaning that needs to be addressed." BookLoons

"This book was fascinating from a variety of perspectives and it based on a true story. I enjoyed it and I believe you will too!" Bookpleasures.com

Author Bio

Lawrence Millman is a writer, Arctic explorer, and mycologist who has made more than forty expeditions to the Arctic and subarctic. He has taught at the University of Iceland, the University of New Hampshire, Tufts University, and the University of Minnesota. His eighteen books include The Last Speaker of Bear, Last Places, At the End of the World, Fungipedia, Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Hiking to Siberia, Northern Latitudes, and Goodbye, Ice. He has received a Guggenheim Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lowell Thomas Award. When not on the road or in the bush, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.