A finales del verano, un grupo de arqueólogos viaja a las costas de Groenlandia para buscar los restos de una civilización perdida: la que fundaron en el año 982 los primeros colonos escandinavos, que desaparecieron misteriosamente de la isla a comienzos del siglo XV. Sin embargo, cuando llega el duro invierno glacial, quedan atrapados entre el frío y la nieve, sin conexión a internet y rodeados por los espectros que todavía persisten en la zona. Así, aislados del mundo, los arqueólogos se enfrentarán a la escasez de alimentos y a sus propios fantasmas con el temor de que nadie, quizás, vaya a rescatarlos, pues un virus mortal acaba de propagarse por la tierra y amenaza con diezmar a la humanidad.

Five archaeologists and a friend travel to undertake an academic expedition in northern Greenland, just south of the Arctic Circle. They plan to excavate a five hundred year old Viking settlement.

Unfortunately, it comes with ghosts. The non-archaeologist not only sees movement, she hears them and even feels their hands on the outside of her tent.

The communication with the outside world is minimal at best – due to cost they are only in contact via internet once a week.

But while the head of the expedition is considering whether the haunted woman needs to be evacuated before her mental health problems worsen, disaster strikes. An epidemic strikes the US and Europe, and while at first infections seem scattered, the numbers keep increasing.

And then the internet goes out world wide. The back-up satellite phone doesn’t work; the airplane supposed to pick them up at the end of the summer doesn’t appear. Daylight is disappearing quickly from the arctic skies; snow begins to fall and food runs out. The long dead inhabitants are becoming more restless.

It’s apparent they can’t all survive –is this truly the end of the world?

The suspense in this one is palpable – and I gulped this book down within twenty four hours, feeling unable to abandon it, while the forboding built. ( )

This is suspenseful and creepy. The main action takes place on an archaeological dig in Greenland where the team are living in very cold and basic conditions - its unclear if there are supernatural forces at work or they have over active imaginations, but either way it's pretty unsettling.

There is also a background plotline about a pandemic in the wider world which makes it feel a little too on the nose as we live through COVID.

I think Sarah Moss is a really thoughtful and intense writer, definitely planning to read more. ( )

Needs more cannibalism. ( )

Cold Earth by Sarah Moss is an outstanding story that is a combination of a survival story, a ghost story and a dystopian vision about a virus wiping out the world. It was originally published in 2009, but considering what we are facing today with Covid-19, it certainly feels timely and current.

The story follows a small team of archaeologists and academics who travel to a remote location in Greenland to participate in a three week dig excavating the remains of a Viking settlement. As they leave their homes, a deadly flu-like virus has started to spread rapidly across the world. When the plane that was supposed to pick them up doesn’t arrive, each character writes a “final” letter to leave behind as a record of their existence. These letters are very personal and reveal both inner feelings and glimpses of their past. The super-natural experiences are linked to Nina, an English academic who experiences night terrors and becomes convinced that ghosts are watching them, disturbed by their graves being dug up. The group follow the pandemic’s effect on the world through reading the news on the one lap-top they have but their isolation makes everything seem unreal.

This is an atmospheric story that is charged with touches of abnormal phenomena that leave the reader unsure if this is real or imagined. There is a feeling that all that unfolds is inevitable, these six characters living together in a claustrophobic, remote, cold location while the outside world is experiencing illness and death. Vivid, dark and scary, Cold Earth will be a novel that haunts me for some time. ( )