Ice Walker

Reviews

A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of 2020
A 49th Shelf Most Anticipated Book “I have never felt as intimate with another animal as I have with Raffan’s polar bear, Nanu. Raffan evokes her world—on land and ice, hunting, hibernating, giving birth, and raising cubs—with a sensory vocabulary that combines science and poetry to powerful effect. In so doing, Raffan initiates us into ‘bearness,’ putting us, not just inside Nanu’s den but, almost literally, under her skin, where we become deeply invested in her life and fate, which is unavoidably linked to our own.”
— JOHN VAILLANT, bestselling author of The Golden Spruce and The Tiger “An evocative and sensory trip through the Arctic, Ice Walker captures the beauty, the danger, and the expanse of the northern icescape while calling us to action to save the polar bear, the world it inhabits, and all they represent. This is a timely book about the power of a mother’s love that transcends species. Nanu’s story will live in my imagination for a long time.”
— PAUL NICKLEN, award-winning National Geographic photographer and author of Born to Ice “Raffan plunges readers into Hudson Bay and the world of Nanu, a female polar bear, spinning a stunning tale around this massive creature and the world she inhabits. The ice is as much a character in the story as the bears, and Raffan extols the wonders of this land, and what its loss will mean for Canadians and the world.”
— The Globe and Mail “Just as a polar bear slips between worlds, from solid ground to sea ice and back again, James Raffan moves effortlessly between the tangible and the imaginative in this strikingly evocative, scientifically rigorous exploration of ‘bearness.’ In journeying vicariously with a female polar bear through a world of flux, we see that no one and nothing exists in isolation, especially in the far north. Failing to recognize this reality more broadly will only accelerate our undoing. Ice Walker, then, is an act of defiance and hope. This is nature writing at its most intimate, compassionate, and exhilarating pitch.”
— KATE HARRIS, award-winning and bestselling author of Land of Lost Borders “Raffan educates and fascinates readers, lending an intimacy as we journey along with [the bear]. . . . Raffan describes scenes in a beautiful, captivating, and, at times, heartbreaking fashion, pondering how human life affects the bears and, by extension, all of existence. . . . Fans of John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce will be equally enthralled by this.”
— Booklist (Starred) “Raffan brings the ecological marvels of the polar bear’s world into the hearts and minds of the reader—framed by the realities of the harshest inhabited environment on planet earth.”
— DR. PETER EWINS, lead specialist, species conservation, World Wildlife Fund Canada “Raffan takes a unique approach to engaging our empathy—and, by extension, our concern—by telling the story from the perspective of a polar bear called Nanu. A compelling mix of science and narrative.”
— Toronto Star “From bestselling author James Raffan comes Ice Walker, an enlightening and original story about a polar bear’s precarious existence in the changing Arctic.”
— 49th Shelf “A welcome, if saddening, look at a disappearing world and a keystone species that may disappear with it.”
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred)  “For most of my life, I have read stories of animals, stories that possibly made me who I am. My heroes have been the likes of Ernest Thompson Seton, who was able to get inside the skin of other creatures without anthropomorphizing. James Raffan’s Ice Walker is a worthy member of that tradition. As he captures the smells, sounds and feel of the Arctic, we become engaged and travel with Nanu and share her world. We care about her, her cubs, and her environment and end up wanting to protect those all the more. This book is important reading!”
— ROBERT BATEMAN, Canadian naturalist and bestselling author of Life Sketches and Robert Bateman’s Canada “In Ice Walker, explorer and adventurer James Raffan asks readers to look at the Arctic through unexpected eyes.”
— CBC Books Expand reviews