Press Release
Dark Matter selected for Richard & Judy Book Club31/08/2011
Michelle Paver’s ghost story
Dark Matter (Orion)
is among the eight titles featured in Richard & Judy’s fourth Book Club promotion with WH Smith, available in store from 1 September. Rachel Russell, WHS books business unit director, describes the autumn list as being “rich in talented authors with incredible storytelling.”
In addition to the in-store promotion, WH Smith continues to offer readers exclusive podcast content through iTunes. The Book Club Podcast features interviews, chapter readings, and facts about each book club author.
Set in the haunting wilderness of the far north,
Dark Matter is a ghost story like no other. It is 1937 and clouds of war are gathering over fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves for Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year: Gruhuken.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. Soon Jack will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return – when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark.
Michelle Paver is the author of the internationally bestselling
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series for children.
Dark Matter is her first adult ghost story. It arises from her lifelong love of the Arctic, which has taken her to northern Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Spitsbergen