The Sun Is a Compass

Starred review from October 22, 2018
In undertaking an epic trek from the Pacific Northwest to the Alaskan Arctic, Van Hemert, a wildlife biologist, and her husband encountered both the grandeur and danger of some of the planet’s wildest locations. She vividly renders the experience, including being stalked by a black bear in the Brooks Range, initially visible only as “deep-set eyes, a pointed nose, and cinnamon-colored fur”; fighting the elements in a homemade rowboat off Vancouver Island; capsizing a raft in the Arctic Ocean; and coming under relentless attack for days by thousands of mosquitos in the Mackenzie Delta. Similarly, descriptions of witnessing a huge herd of caribou crossing Alaska’s Noatak River and of being followed in the Arctic Ocean by two huge moose, “large, brown noses stirring the surface of the water as they stare blankly ahead,” capture the magnificence of untamed nature. Van Hemert proves equally adept at exploring the inner dialogue that accompanied the harrowing physical feats, touching on love and loss, new parenthood, and the struggle to combine her passions for scientific inquiry and adventure. She leaves nature lovers with a story—of adventure, of environmental awareness, and of personal discovery—worth savoring. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary.

December 1, 2018

In her first book, Van Hemert embarks on an epic journey toward understanding the concept of zugunruhe, the German word for migratory restlessness most markedly seen in certain bird species. Disillusioned by the drudgeries of academia and realities of adulthood, Van Hemert and husband Pat commit to traveling north from Bellingham, WA, to the upper reaches of Alaska and then across the Alaskan wilderness eschewing motorized transportation of any kind. They traverse water via homemade rowboats, canoe, and inflatable rafts, and cover land by ski and foot. Throughout the adventure, Van Hemert reveals the concerns that plague her: can she recapture her love of the natural world snuffed out by the grind of pursuing a PhD? Is it the right time to start a family? How will her dad fare with his recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease? These thoughts are juxtaposed by a quest that requires sheer force of will, strength, and a driving determination to finish what she started. VERDICT This inspirational memoir is riveting. Reading it will incite wanderlust.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2018
A research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center recounts a stirring wilderness adventure set against the background of a young woman juggling family, career, and a passion for rough country.From the Pacific rainforests of Washington state to a remote corner of the Alaskan Arctic, it was an often grueling, 4,000-mile journey by foot, skis, raft, and canoe that few would have attempted, even such experienced wilderness travelers as debut author Van Hemert and her husband, Pat. In 2012, the author, who had begun to question her devotion to science, and Pat, a home builder driven by wanderlust, embarked on an expedition that would succeed or fail on human power alone--no roads, no trails, no motors--and test the limits of their endurance on some of the harshest and most unforgiving terrain in the world. Van Hemert chronicles their journey in sharp, sometimes-harrowing detail, though not so minutely that the narrative bogs down in the exigencies of living in the wild. While she discusses their various triumphs and travails, the author fully expresses the wonder of what they saw and experienced, who they met along the way, the microcultures they encountered, and how the journey brought her back to a love of scientific inquiry (if not to a love of the laboratory). After a brief in-progress report, she opens with the couple's personal histories and motivations for undertaking the trip. What might have been perfunctory actually adds depth. For all the readers' vicarious thrills and Van Hemert's admirable writing, it is the author's candor regarding her doubts and her appealing vulnerability that make this memoir so resonant.One follows this engrossing adventure feeling as eager as the travelers to see what's around the next bend in the river, on the next island, across the next coastal passage, or over the next mountain pass.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.