The towering mountains and iceberg-filled seas of the western Antarctic Peninsula have for three decades formed the backdrop of scientist Bill Fraser's study of Adélie penguins. In that time, this breathtaking region has warmed faster than any place on earth, with profound consequences for the Adélies, the classic tuxedoed penguin that is dependent on sea ice to survive. During the Antarctic spring and summer of 2005-2006, author Fen Montaigne spent five months working on Fraser's field team, and he returned with a moving tale that chronicles the beauty of the wildest place on earth, the lives of the beloved Adélies, the saga of the discovery of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the story—told through Fraser's work—of how rising temperatures are swiftly changing this part of the world. Captivated by the tale of these polar penguins and a memorable field season in Antarctica, readers will come to understand that the fundamental changes Fraser has witnessed in the Antarctic will soon affect our lives.
"A glimpse into the blood-and-guano facts of penguin existence . . . Montaigne fills Fraser's Penguins with research, both journalistic and scientific, presented in clear, well-wrought sentences."—B.T. Shaw, The Oregonian
"Encompassing geology, biology, chunks of Antarctic history, descriptions of living and working in a bleak and beautiful environment, and personality profiles of those who like being there, Montaigne's book is a fine work of natural history to tell us of the penguins' plight, which is also our own . . . Montaigne produces wonderful descriptions of life on a penguin colony and on the alien, beautiful frozen desert where he worked that summer. His descriptions of human life in the research station are just as interesting."—Rob Hardy, The Columbus Dispatch
"Moving effortlessly and seamlessly from poetic description to scientific discussion, Montaigne is able to weave a narrative that is both poignant and informative."—Todd Mayville, Elephant Journal
"Richly observed and keenly affecting, Fraser's Penguins is a portrait of a world in the process of disappearing. Fen Montaigne has written an evocative and important book."—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe
"Fraser’s Penguins is a book overflowing with four-story icebergs and half-ton leopard seals, a book smeared with krill-red penguin excrement, a book that makes you want to strap on your wool-lined rain-pants, jump into the nearest Zodiac, and motor head-on into ice-cold 25-mile-per-hour winds."—Jake de Grazia, ZocaloPublicSquare.org
"By focusing on the plight of the Adélie penguin, Fen Montaigne has found a way to transform the concept of global warming into a moving and irrefutable truth. Fraser’s Penguins is a brilliant, beautiful, and terrifying account of what’s happening at the bottom of our world."—Nathaniel Philbrick, author of The Last Stand, In the Heart of the Sea, and Sea of Glory
"Sobering, fact-based cautionary treatise on the quiet storm of climate change."—Kirkus Reviews
"A bittersweet account of the stark beauty of the continent and the climate change that threatens its delicate ecosystem . . . Montaigne poetically portrays the daunting Antarctic landscape and gives readers an intimate perspective on its rugged, audacious, and charming penguin and human inhabitants."—Publishers Weekly
Fen Montaigne is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, and The Wall Street Journal. A former Moscow bureau chief of The Philadelphia Inquirer, he is the author of Reeling in Russia and has co-authored two other books. For his work on Fraser's Penguins, Montaigne was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. He now works as senior editor of the online magazine Yale Environment 360.
PROLOGUE
What we're looking at here is an entire ecosystem that is changing, and it's not changing in hundreds of years. It's changing in thirty to fifty years. To me this is foretelling the future across major parts of the planet. All those places we cherish are going to change.—Bill Fraser, Torgersen Island, 2006
On a still, sunny evening in February, scores of newly fledged Adélie penguin chicks were arrayed on the cobblestone beaches of Torgersen Island, contemplating the next step in their brief lives.
Fen Montaigne Discusses Fraser's Penguins with Stephen Colbert
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