This book was inspired by a true incident. In 1938-39, Germany's Hermann Goring did send an expedition to Antarctica on the seaplane tender Schwabenland. Its pilots were the first to fly over the coastal ranges of Queen Maud Land and they assigned some names to the region that persist today. The Germans did drop swastika-engraved darts from their flying boats to establish a claim to the continent, and did greet curious penguins with a "Heil Hitler!" They named the area New Schwabenland.
Except for Hermann Goring, however, all the characters in this novel are imagined. None are meant to represent the actual members of the Schwabenland expedition. The history recounted here is solely the author's invention. To the degree possible, however, this novel's descriptions are based on historic accounts of the places, times, people, and mores of the Nazi era.
Those readers familiar with Antarctic history and geography will recognize some sources of the novel's ideas. Atropos Island is inspired by real-life Deception Island, for example. Dry valleys such as the one described do exist. So do leopard seals. The disease depicted is fiction but scientists have recently discovered underground ecosystems of bacteria fed by chemicals and the earth's heat energy. The drug was suggested by the story of penicillin, discovered accidentally in 1928 when mold spores blew through a scientist's window and fell on plates of bacteria. The strain that was developed as an antibiotic in World War II, Penicillin chrysogenum, came from a single moldy cantaloupe found by a researcher in a supermarket garbage bin in Peoria, Illinois. Proving again that truth is at least as strange as fiction.
This book would not have been possible without the opportunity to make two visits to Antarctica as a science journalist writing for the Seattle Times, under a fellowship program of the National Science Foundation. I am grateful to the Times, the NSF, and all the people I met there. They and the southern continent affected me deeply.
Antarctica is an extraordinary place, which tends to have an enormous impact on those who visit it. No continent on earth has quite its combination of hostility and beauty. In the twenty-first century Antarctica is likely to come under heavy pressure from nations eager to exploit its resources. It is imperative this unique place be preserved as the wilderness and research park it is today.
I am in debt to the encouragement of my agent, Kris Dahl, and the patient guidance and support of my editor, Rick Horgan. And I am at a loss to adequately thank my wife, Holly, for her help with this book. She became my collaborator on this novel under difficult circumstances. Across a vast distance we became closer, and I will always be grateful for that.
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