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My Last Continent

Midge Raymond (Goodreads Author)

3.93 · Rating details · 1,358 ratings · 327 reviews

An unforgettable debut with an irresistible love story, "My Last Continent" is a big-hearted, propulsive novel set against the dramatic Antarctic landscape original and entirely authentic love story (Graeme Simsion, author of "The Rosie Project").
It is only at the end of the world among the glacial mountains, cleaving icebergs, and frigid waters of Antarctica where Deb ...more

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Hardcover, 308 pages

Published June 21st 2016 by Scribner

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· 1,358 ratings · 327 reviews

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Jun 06, 2016 Elyse (retired from reviewing/semi hiatus) Walters rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

Geeeeeezzzzzz......I hate it...I love it....I hate it.... I love it....
.....damn it....I cried twice in two very specific places....
I could not put this book down... I'm shaking having just finished it....exhausted with tears in my eyes.....
I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone!!!

"One thing the animal kingdom had not yet taught me is that hope is more punishing than grief." - wow -

"One winter, I watched an Adelie penguin minding her nest during an unexpected
snowstorm. Soon covered with snow ...more

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Jun 06, 2016 Jen rated it really liked it

The Antarctic. A place to run to in order to find yourself or a place to hide from oneself.
Deb Gardner is a naturalist studying Penguins in the deep freeze of the southern hemisphere. Here she feels most in her comfort zone among the beautiful animals she studies respecting the nature and the behaviour of animals because they do not cause intentional harm the same way humans do. Yet, love has a way of reaching even the most remote parts of the earth. As does heartache.

The structure of the ...more

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Jun 06, 2016 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

3.5 I have such a huge fascination for the Antarctic continent, a place I will never visit. Plus, love reading novels set in cold climates when it is so blasted hot out.

Wonderfully descriptive writing, the cold, the ice, the glaciers, and the wonderful penguins. A love story between Deb and Keller, but it is so blended with the setting that their love for each other is entwined with their love of the Antarctic. Loved all the environmental warnings, what the changes of global warning and more ...more

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Apr 17, 2016 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-books

"One thing the animal kingdom had not yet taught me is that hope is more punishing than grief.

We don't know much about animals' capacity for hope. We do know that they grieve, that they are joyful and playful and mischievous and clever. We've seen animals work together toward a common goal, and we've seen them use tools to get what they want. Despite what many believe, they are not so different from us."

Deb Gardner would much rather spend time with penguins than with people. Her job as a ...more

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Mar 16, 2016 Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016

This book was one that I eagerly waited to read. I fell in love with the cover and the blurb and was really looking forward to reading a love story set in Antarctica. And, the book was good, just not that fantastic good I had hoped for. It took some time for me to get into the story and all the flashbacks that told the reader about how Deb and Keller met were not always that interesting to read about, not since the present story was more interesting. Sure, with the flashbacks we learned how they ...more

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Mar 27, 2016 Jill rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-romance

The end of the world, the beginning of everything.

Deb Gardner likes solitude and science. Studying the penguin populations in Antarctica suits her perfectly. Keller Sullivan, former lawyer, first comes to the Antarctic research station as a dishwasher in the maintenance crew, before going back to college studying ecology and graduating as a naturalist. For a number of years this is how Deb and Keller maintain their relationship over a few months each year on the ice continent.

One year Keller

The end of the world, the beginning of everything.

Deb Gardner likes solitude and science. Studying the penguin populations in Antarctica suits her perfectly. Keller Sullivan, former lawyer, first comes to the Antarctic research station as a dishwasher in the maintenance crew, before going back to college studying ecology and graduating as a naturalist. For a number of years this is how Deb and Keller maintain their relationship over a few months each year on the ice continent.

One year Keller fails to show up and Deb makes the trip to Antarctica on the research vessel without him. When a cruise ship becomes trapped in the ice, the research ship races to its rescue and Deb finds out that Keller is on board the sinking cruise ship.

Told in flashback, with each chapter leading up to the fate of the doomed ship, My Last Continent is an entertaining read with interesting characters. Written in first person from the heroine's point-of-view, this is general fiction with a romantic subplot, but with a relationship between the main characters that felt secondary to both their love affairs with Antarctica itself.

The descriptions of Antarctica and the scientific research there sounded authentic. The inexorable countdown to the stricken cruise ship was done well. Despite the words 'romance' and 'love story' being used to describe this story, I couldn't help but feel the protagonists' relationship was nothing more than propinquity. This is how most relationships form in real life, but I still felt their shared love of Antarctica was their one great passion, rather than each other, with Keller especially coming across as if he could take it or leave it.

Going by the prologue I was pretty sure I knew how this would end. The author’s fascination for this amazing continent and its wildlife is evident in her evocative descriptions of Antarctica. This debut is certainly well-written but failed to totally win me, due mainly to the unconvincing love story.

Steam: 1.5-2

ARC courtesy of Scribner via NetGalley

...more

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Apr 18, 2016 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: around-the-world, ebooks, reviewcopy, read2016, location-antarctica, cold-weather-islands

"As every Antarctic traveler knows, once you being to fear the ice, the relationship changes forever."

From the beginning of this novel, you know that there will be a ship that sinks near Antarctica. The narrator, Deb, is an ornithologist specializing in Adélie penguins, who spends several months a year tracing penguin migration, counting numbers of chicks and survivors, etc. In between research tasks she gives tours and talks to tourists who have come to the end of the earth.

Along the way, she ...more

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Jun 10, 2016 Cheri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016, literary-fiction, climate-change, global-warming, antarctica

I did not want to put this book down. I found myself picking up the book again, just to read just a little more, just a few more pages… I was mesmerized from the start. Beautifully written, a story that hooks you from the very beginning.

While you know some facts from the start, that there will be a disaster that takes place unexpectedly, it takes away nothing from this lovely debut novel by Midge Raymond.

Deb Gardner has been going to Antarctica for years, at first for her love for the penguins ...more

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Mar 29, 2016 Heather *Undercover Goth Queen* rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction-lit, 2016, fpp-bad, boring, no, gag, antarctica

I can't escape first person present tense. It's invading every genre. It's everywhere. Resistance is futile.

I love reading Antarctica books, but I didn't enjoy this. While the descriptions of the continent, though too few and far between, were accurate, there was very little else to recommend this novel in my opinion. Everything aside from the Antarctica bits were boring. So boring. The love story, the parts where Deb goes home, her life up until the present... BORING.

The writing did not flow at I can't escape first person present tense. It's invading every genre. It's everywhere. Resistance is futile.

I love reading Antarctica books, but I didn't enjoy this. While the descriptions of the continent, though too few and far between, were accurate, there was very little else to recommend this novel in my opinion. Everything aside from the Antarctica bits were boring. So boring. The love story, the parts where Deb goes home, her life up until the present... BORING.

The writing did not flow at all. It tried so hard to be all poetic and draw parallels between Antarctica and life, but they were so forced and clumsy. The frickin' penguin metaphors were crammed in there like crazy. If someone ever mentions monogamous penguins mating for life or some shit to me I might just punch them in the face. They won't even know why and they'll just think I'm unusually aggressive.

One thing I've noticed when reading nonfiction Antarctica books is that the researchers and other workers who travel there tend to be territorial, standoffish, disdainful of visitors, and generally unfit for life anywhere besides Antarctica. This isn't always the case, of course, but they've been portrayed this way enough times that I've taken notice of it. Well, this book takes it one step further and makes them into annoying environmental crusaders.

For what it's worth, I do believe changes need to be made to humanity's way of life in order to protect the environment, but I fucking HATE when it's preached at me. And no, I don't believe the people who work in Antarctica are so fucking perfect that they have a right to act superior to others. Like they've never made a harmful mark on the environment. Like they aren't interfering with penguin colonies (no matter what they say) or pouring drilling fluid into ice.

Okay, this is fiction, and I'm getting a little worked up. I know. Anyway, my point is there are Antarctica tourists in this book, and they are portrayed as the stupidest fucking bumbleheads I've ever seen. And of course the workers look down on them (another thing I hate—people looking down on tourists. I'll save that one for another time). But seriously, they were SO STUPID. In Antarctica, death is just waiting to happen, and these people are out having a jolly good time running past the flag barriers because they want "alone time" or indulging in some quick freestyle rock-climbing or walking out onto ice. For fuck's sake. I don't even know why I'm mad about this. Maybe it's because these people were treated as annoyances for wanting to go on an Antarctic cruise in the first place, but when they did these life-threatening things, they were lightly reprimanded.

So, no, I didn't enjoy this book at all. And obviously I have issues with Antarctic workers, even though I've never actually met any. I may need therapy about this.

One star added for accuracy.

The end. ...more

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May 07, 2016 Julie Christine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2016, contemporary-fiction

This first novel by short-story author, essayist and publisher Midge Raymond chills with deftly foreshadowed doom and warms with slow-burning passion.

Deb Gardner, a biologist who prefers polar isolation and penguins to warmer climes and the company of humans, spends part of the year at a research station in Antarctica, studying effects of climate change and other human intrusions on penguin habitat. Ironically, it is ecotourism that affords her the opportunity to study her beloved flightless ...more

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Aug 26, 2016 Dana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, adult-romance, up-all-night, buy, 2016

Wow talk about an atmospheric book! I read this book in the summer and still felt the icy chill of the Antarctic whistle through the pages. Very impressive writing. This book is a love story, not just between Deb and Keller, but also Deb and the Antarctic. Both of which are unpredictable and capricious.

Couldn't put this book down, as is often the case with books that I love I find it difficult to write a decent review. My mind is still reeling from this emotional rollercoaster of a book. Maybe ...more

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Jul 12, 2016 Myrna rated it really liked it

My Last Continent has a little romance, a sinking ship and a loving homage to Antarctica and penguin studies. The novel also jumps back and forth in time, has great characters and is very heart-wrenching. Overall an original, interesting story done in a nice, refreshing way. I look forward to reading more of her future novels.

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Jun 10, 2016 Book of Secrets°ღ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sad! Beautiful! MY LAST CONTINENT is a story about love and loss, about running away only to find yourself in a remote land of ice. I'm almost certain that reading this book will be the closest I get to Antarctica, and I appreciated the author's gorgeous descriptions.

There are three main characters in this book: Deb, an ornithologist who studies penguins; Keller, a former Boston lawyer who heads to Antarctica as a dishwasher; and the continent itself, who brings Deb and Keller together and ...more

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Jan 19, 2019 Jill rated it it was amazing

"It seems like there are two kinds of people who come to Antarctica. Those who have run out of places to go, and those who have run out of places to hide."

Deb Gardner is the latter kind and so is her love interest, Keller Sullivan. As readers, we know early on there will be a shipwreck that will have dire consequences for them. But the story unfolds gradually, with chapters that take us way back into Deb's life and then quickly moves forward to days before the shipwreck. Like a jigsaw puzzle, we ...more

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Dec 15, 2016 Carlos rated it liked it

Actually 3.5 stars. The premise of the book, the background (Antarctica), and the minor characters all work perfect in this book, but I was not convinced by the main plot of the book, I thought it was too easy to decipher what the ending would be , another thing that I did not like were all the flashbacks that the book relied on , while it was ok at the beginning I don't see how they helped the main story move along , instead I think the author should have spent more time taking advantage of ...more

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May 31, 2016 Marianne rated it really liked it

“The tent is tight and cramped, not unlike our individual sleeping quarters on the Cormorant – but now, rather than the hum of the ship, we hear the sounds of penguins and waves lapping the bay; rather than the dry heated air, the night is alive with a gelid summer mist”

My Last Continent is the first novel by American author, Midge Raymond. Deb Gardner is a naturalist who studies penguins. Some thirteen years after she first went to Antarctica as part of the Antarctic Penguin Project, she is “The tent is tight and cramped, not unlike our individual sleeping quarters on the Cormorant – but now, rather than the hum of the ship, we hear the sounds of penguins and waves lapping the bay; rather than the dry heated air, the night is alive with a gelid summer mist”

My Last Continent is the first novel by American author, Midge Raymond. Deb Gardner is a naturalist who studies penguins. Some thirteen years after she first went to Antarctica as part of the Antarctic Penguin Project, she is witness to a terrible shipwreck, the effects of which are far-reaching in her own life.

Antarctica may seem like an unlikely place to fall in love, but when ex-lawyer Keller Sullivan turns up as a kitchen hand, his genuine interest in the penguins that Deb is studying gets under her usual defences. Eventually, they are partners in the research project. But, just like their sea voyages on the Cormorant to the frozen continent, all is not smooth sailing in their love affair.

Deb’s first person narrative alternates between the immediate time before the shipwreck, after the shipwreck and many years before the shipwreck, exploring how she came to be an Antarctic researcher and her relationship with Keller, as well as describing the shipwreck and the immediate aftermath.

Raymond manages to incorporate within her story a wealth of information about penguins and their behaviour, the polar landscape, the effects of tourism, and research practices, and does so in a way that makes it interesting and easily assimilated. Her plot is original; her characters are realistic, if a bit quirky, and all the more appealing for their flaws; her descriptive prose is highly evocative: the cold and danger are almost palpable, while the stark beauty of the landscape comes effortlessly to mind.

“…the silence fills my mind like water in a jar – the world goes smooth and clear, with nothing but the whisk of wind around the ice, the splash of a penguin entering the water, the gurgle of waves against the ice. We float along the edge of an iced city, the bergs rising out of the water like skyscrapers. The sea has arched doorways into the sides; the wind has chipped out windows. In the distance, several conical formations tower over the bay, with deep crevasses in their sides, as if enormous claws have slashed through them, drawing blue light instead of blood”

Raymond’s debut novel is a moving and thought-provoking story of love and loss, of beauty and danger, of joy and tragedy. It is filled with gorgeous prose, with emotion, and with interesting facts. With this novel, Midge Raymond proves herself a talented author whose further works will be eagerly anticipated.
4.5 stars ...more

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Feb 24, 2017 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2017, romantic

"My Last Continent feels refreshingly different, vivid, and immediate. Midge Raymond has an extraordinary gift for description that puts the reader bang in the middle of the action, bang in the middle of its dangerous and endangered world. Her clean spare prose pulls us irresistibly into the story and the wider issues it raises. She is clearly a writer in command of her craft." - M. L. STEDMAN, author of The Light Between Oceans

"An unforgettable debut with an irresistible love story, MY LAST ...more

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Feb 12, 2016 Megan • Reading Books Like a Boss (book blog) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooked-it, 2016-releases

Audiobook Comments Included

Midge Raymond's debut,My Last Continent,is an ode to Antarctica with a unique and emotional love story. Raymond'srich and descriptive narrative, while at times overly used, takes readers on a harrowing journey to a land rarely traveled.

Deb has dedicated her life to research and studying the colonies of penguins in Antarctica. For the last several years, she has spent part of her year working for the Antarctic Penguin Project. While in the Southern Hemisphere, she ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Andrea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-foreign-locale, around-the-world-2019, personal-challenge-2019

People go to Antarctica for two reasons; either they’ve run out of places to go, or run out of places to hide.

Deb and Keller have built an unconventional, somewhat fragile romantic relationship around their annual research trips to Antarctica to study penguin populations and habits. But the relationship is what it is, and it’s real for both of them. This summer, despite having made very recent plans together, Deb arrives at their meeting point in Ushuaia, and Keller’s not there. Then, when she ...more

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Dec 09, 2016 Cheeky Cher rated it it was ok

Shelves: contemporary, cover_lover, romance

2 stars - Meh. Just ok.

Set primarily in Antarctica, the imagery and descriptions are vivid and create a wonderful escapist atmosphere. However, there is an extremely heavy handed focus on a romance, and it is unfortunately a tepid and forgettable one. Had the novel focused more on the environmental issues or generalized drama instead of a dispassionate cliché relationship, it would have been far more enjoyable. I would be interested in reading nonfiction by this author should she ever write such ...more

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May 03, 2016 Laura rated it liked it

Did you know that killer whales aren't actually whales (they're dolphins), or that a healthy penguin’s poo is pink, or that the driest desert on earth is in Antarctica?

This book taught me A LOT about Antarctica. It's two things at once: a lyrical, intense love letter to Antarctica and a slightly less convincing love story.

The main character, Deb, is a researcher who travels around the continent counting penguins, sometimes living with the colonies for weeks at a time. She loves Antarctica ...more

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Apr 20, 2016 Mike W rated it really liked it

Deb Gardner has preferred the company of penguins to people for most of her adult life. She spends as much time as nature and her funding allow, at least several weeks per year, in Antarctica, researching and counting penguins and tolerating the relatively few other humans with whom she is forced to interact. While her research is funded, her travel relies on sharing space and job duties on board a small ship that caters to wealthy passengers wanting to see Antarctica for various reasons. While Deb Gardner has preferred the company of penguins to people for most of her adult life. She spends as much time as nature and her funding allow, at least several weeks per year, in Antarctica, researching and counting penguins and tolerating the relatively few other humans with whom she is forced to interact. While her research is funded, her travel relies on sharing space and job duties on board a small ship that caters to wealthy passengers wanting to see Antarctica for various reasons. While she does seem comfortable educating the passengers as part of her job, they mostly appear to be a frustrating reminder to her of the ignorance and indifference about climate change science, especially as related to her continent and its penguins.

When Keller Sullivan first appears on the continent he's been hired as a dish washer, but he takes an immediate interest in Deb's work, offering to tag along and help on their first meeting. Though she prefers isolation, Keller's looks, personality and his genuine interest in her penguins causes Deb to break from her standard operating procedure and she allows him along. She eventually learns that he is no ordinary dish washer and that he'd been a successful attorney in Boston, married and a father to a young daughter but that tragedy had changed his circumstances. A romance develops, as apparently they often do on the continent, even among the married who have left their spouses back home, but when the season ends Deb finds that Keller will be staying instead of returning to Oregon with her as planned and they are indefinitely separated during which time she has finally been able to mostly forget him.

Of course, a love story requires that they meet again, and now Keller has become a peer, having returned to school to procure an advanced degree and has been hired to work on the same project as Deb. Their romance is sparked anew and it's here that the novel begins to fill in their back stories and the more complete truths about how they each ended up preferring the isolation at earth's end.

Looming from the book's earliest pages is the knowledge that a very serious accident once occurred on a massive cruise ship which sank during an effort to impress passengers with its ability to dip south and offer a glance of the last continent. The reader knows that this event is coming and that significant loss of life occurs. The reader also knows that Deb was witness to it, creating an almost tangible fog of angst throughout the read that steadily builds as more details are revealed. In fact the final 1/4 of this literary fiction skirts the border of thriller, probably crossing that line once or twice along the way and earning the old cliche of "un-put-downable".

At its heart, My Last Continent is a novel about human relationships but, not by accident, almost everything learned here can also be applied to the continent and to the earth as a whole. At times, the symbolism felt heavy handed and I think the novel likely set a world record for penguin related similes, but the steady reveal of back story and strong ending make for a rewarding reading experience. Don't get me wrong, the experience is at times uncomfortable as personal biases may clash with the strong opinions of the protagonists but as with all good fiction, it is in the end meant to teach us something about ourselves and here, My Last Continent succeeds.

ARC received free via NetGalley ...more

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Oct 30, 2016 Phyllis rated it really liked it

Great debut novel for this author. The descriptions of the environment in Antarctica had me wrapped up in a blanket at times. Deb Gardner travels to Antarctica every "summer" for her research on the different types of penguins and also the effects of humans (both researches and tourists) on the environment. It is there she meets Keller and falls in love. This is not a sappy love story but an unfolding of cautious love. The book travels back and forth in time and works well for this book. I loved ...more

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Jul 18, 2016 Rosie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-favourites

I really enjoyed this book and loved everything about it. It was beautifully written and I felt like I had been to Antarctica after reading it. I learned a lot about the continent and the wildlife there and how destructive tourism can be. I also loved the cover, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place. I laughed and I cried. Highly recommend.

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Feb 22, 2016 Lynn rated it it was amazing

Antarctica facts are intertwined over and under and up and through the love story of Deb and Keller. Deb grew up loving birds, and, during college, is pushed to a research assistantship in Antarctica. Keller wanted to go to Antarctica, but found the only way was to sign on as a dishwasher; so he did.

Throughout this wonderful, sparkling DEBUT novel, Deb and Keller's love for each other and love for the penguins they study is nothing short of overwhelming. A stunner to read.

I read this DARC ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Blaine DeSantis rated it it was amazing

Absolutely loved this book! A book that actually begins with an Afterwards, and then weaves a tale that goes back and forth through Antarctica, as well as the lives of the narrator Deb and a man she meets there, named Keller. It is a love story and an ecological story, as well as a an adventure story about a cruise ship that ventures into the realm of Antartica. I am not really a big ecology-oriented person, but this story really hit me as a wakeup call for all of those people who feel the need Absolutely loved this book! A book that actually begins with an Afterwards, and then weaves a tale that goes back and forth through Antarctica, as well as the lives of the narrator Deb and a man she meets there, named Keller. It is a love story and an ecological story, as well as a an adventure story about a cruise ship that ventures into the realm of Antartica. I am not really a big ecology-oriented person, but this story really hit me as a wakeup call for all of those people who feel the need to be on all 7 Continents in the world and the problems that are created by the new massive influx of tourists who come to Antarctic without the least thought as to how they are affecting the seas, the penguins, and the fish in the seas.
We begin with an Afterwards and then go back to a period a few years before the Cruise ship issue that is the main antagonist of the book. From there we swing back later into the narrators life and then back to a more recent period of time. It takes a really good writer to pull this off, and sometimes I have problems with this back and forth time period style, but Midge Raymond pulls it off beautifully.
We meet the narrator, crew of the research boat she is on, passengers on that boat, her current lover and past lovers, we see her fractured family and her love of birds that led to her love of penguins. All of this is woven into a tight and compact 308 pages and is a fast, fast read, especially the two longer chapters that deal with the cruise ship disaster. As an avid cruiser, I board those boats and never think about the ecological impact they have on the seas. We hear how they are doing better and better while we are on the cruises, the but she sheer amounts of cruise ships that now ply todays oceans and seas makes me wonder about the impact they make.
Again, not an eco-horror tale, but rather a love story that is squarely rooted in the narrators love of Antarctica and the penguins she goes down there to research every year, we follow a dedicated narrator who is brought to life expertly by the author. Great book and one that is a perfect book club read! ...more

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Mar 24, 2016 Empress Reece (Hooked on Books) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 32-below, zzexp_2016-read, survival, zzexp_2016-may-clean-sweep-arc-chal, romance, suspense, favorites, netgalley-read, own-it, under-the-sea

Love & Loss at the End of the World....

Words really can't express how much I enjoyed this book! It was a wonderful story about love, loss, grief and finding your way in life. It was such a beautiful but heart-wrenching story. All of the characters were so well-developed that you couldn't help but become attached to them and their outcome. I loved learning about the continent of Antarctica and also about the penguins and their plight. The imagery and the atmosphere that the author evoked was ...more

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Jun 14, 2016 Laurie Notaro rated it it was amazing

Flawlessly written, gorgeous structure and the science that went into this book is nothing short of amazing. Midge Raymond at once gives us a delightful inside look at the penguins of Antartica--which in itself is spellbinding--and then adds layer of deep character profiles, a horrible tragedy and a love story that is real without being sentimental and sappy. A beautiful, beautiful book, I loved it.

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May 23, 2016 Kelsi H rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2016, arcs-from-publisher, netgalley

Please check out all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!

My Last Continent is a beautiful, unusual love story – the love between a woman and a man, but also the love of both for the continent of Antarctica. Deb and Keller meet there, and it is where their love grows, as they observe penguin colonies and shifting icebergs. They find it easy to love while in the isolation of a snowstorm – but it is not so easy to survive as a couple in the real world. Like the penguins they study Please check out all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!

My Last Continent is a beautiful, unusual love story – the love between a woman and a man, but also the love of both for the continent of Antarctica. Deb and Keller meet there, and it is where their love grows, as they observe penguin colonies and shifting icebergs. They find it easy to love while in the isolation of a snowstorm – but it is not so easy to survive as a couple in the real world. Like the penguins they study who sometimes mate for life, they are “loyal first and always to the continent.” (p. 79) While the main characters here are realistic and likeable, it is the setting and its wildlife that are the true stars of this novel.

The novel begins with a prologue titled “Afterwards,” describing a fatal shipwreck in the shifting ice floes of the waters around the Antarctic. In this future setting, Deb is guiding tourists through a penguin habitat, but all they ask her are questions about the cruise ship that sank five years before – the worst disaster in the history of the continent. The Australis lost over seven hundred passengers and crew, including several rescuers – and Deb doesn’t tell the tourists that, victim and rescuer, “we are one and the same.” (p. 3)

Chapters follow with headings such as “One Week Before Shipwreck”, continuing to build anticipation. The timeline jumps from years before to only days before the tragic event that claimed so many lives. Deb’s perspective is the main one, as we watch her relationship develop with Keller over years of seasonal travel to the Antarctic. As a research scientist, Deb spends part of every year on the southernmost continent, and feels most alive in the icy climate. Keller travels to Antarctica to escape a tragedy back home, and ends up staying in this new land where he feels truly alive. Both are obsessed with the continent and its creatures, wishing to preserve their habitat as it changes rapidly due to climate change.

To fund her research program, Deb must work as tour guide on a small vessel, the Cormorant. She tries to instill respect in her tourists, and teaches them that all of their actions and choices contribute directly to the global warming that is threatening the penguins. However, she must be careful what she says, because these people are also paying for her research. The Antarctic is imperiled by those that wish to enjoy it, seeing as the “last continent” to be crossed off their bucket list. In contrast, Deb feels like she is a part of the frozen landscape – she compares herself to her ship, saying “we are both built for the ice.” (p. 6)

The shipwreck is of course the pivotal point in the novel, and we know about it from the start, but that doesn’t take away from the thrilling aspect of the story as it slowly draws closer to the main event. The chapters, moving back and forth through time, circle around the climax, flowing like the sea around an iceberg to unavoidable catastrophe. When it finally happens, the descriptions are sensational, cinematic and shocking. The author clearly develops the stark isolation of the landscape, making the chaos of the shipwreck all the more dramatic compared to the surrounding lack of sensory input. The strength of this novel truly is the setting.

This is a quiet love story combined with an intense environmental thriller. The reader is immersed in the natural world, then that world is shattered by a major disaster – and not only for the human victims of the wreck. Deb’s first concern is that the remnants of the ship, as it slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, will destroy the natural habitat at an even more rapid speed than climate change. The author clearly has an agenda here – her passion for the Antarctic is a warning that we have to live with care to preserve this mostly unexplored world. The descriptions of wildlife are sometimes lengthy, but I still enjoyed them because the information is just so interesting.

Even with its many themes and concepts, the novel flowed smoothly and I loved reading it – I really couldn’t put it down. The love between Deb and Keller is realistic and believable, but it is their love for the Antarctic that makes this novel so special.

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I was asked by the publisher to compare My Last Continent with another forthcoming novel: Arturo Perez-Reverte’s What We Become. Both involve intense love affairs that develop from sporadic meetings over the course of many years – Deb and Keller in My Last Continent, and Max and Mecha in What We Become. When they are reunited in the present, both couples are faced with a climactic event that shakes their relationship to its core. For Deb and Keller, it makes them stronger – their love is stripped to the basics and they learn what really matters in life. For Max and Mecha, current circumstances pull them apart, and they realize that their love may have been based on excitement and danger all along, with no real basis. And while both novels are large in scope, My Last Continent also delves into the minutiae of life, the details that make a real love story. In contrast, What We Become is epic in scale, but it doesn’t reach into the souls of its main characters in quite the same way. Both novels were strong, and I recommend both for summer reading, but for me, My Last Continent was a much more enjoyable read that I connected with on a deeper level.

I received this novel from Scribner/Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.
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Apr 25, 2016 Nancy rated it really liked it

It was World Penguin Day when I started reading My Last Continent by Midge Raymond. I had not realized how perfectly timed my choice was. Raymond's novel is a love story, the love between star crossed lovers and their mutual love of penguins and the Antarctic.

from the author's blog

Deb and Keller are penguin researchers whose love affair flourishes only during their brief weeks together in Antarctica. Their off-season work is on opposites sides of the county, Driven by their need to make a It was World Penguin Day when I started reading My Last Continent by Midge Raymond. I had not realized how perfectly timed my choice was. Raymond's novel is a love story, the love between star crossed lovers and their mutual love of penguins and the Antarctic.

from the author's blog

Deb and Keller are penguin researchers whose love affair flourishes only during their brief weeks together in Antarctica. Their off-season work is on opposites sides of the county, Driven by their need to make a difference and to save the penguins, both are willing to risk everything, even their lives and each other.

Shadows of Antarctic explorers are seen everywhere, foreshadowing the novel's climax.The ghosts of lonely deaths haunt the desolate landscape. Robert Falcon Scott's hut stands undisturbed. "I may be some time," said Capt. Oates as he left the tent shared with his imperiled Scott expedition explorers. He never returned. Deb's lover in passing, Dennis, likewise wandered off to his lonely death after being left behind by his tour boat.

The solitude of the icy desert, the isolation, soothes Deb. Part of Deb wants and needs solitude. Part of her fears dying alone. The memory of an emperor penguin who died alone haunts Deb. Female emperors lay an egg and leaves it under the male's care while she takes off to fatten up for nursing the chick. The males huddle together during the long months of darkness until nearly starved. Human males aren't programmed like the emperors. Before meeting Keller Deb had been alone, for what male was going to wait at home while she took off every year?

"Great God! This is an awful place," Robert Scott wrote in his journal. Tragedy comes into Deb's life and for the first time she realizes the depth of despair that prompted Scott's desperate cry. Keller's ship has hit an iceberg and is sinking and Deb is compelled to search for her beloved mate in the thrilling climax of the novel.

Antarctica is more than the backdrop for the novel, it is a living character. A hundred years ago the explorers vied to be the 'first'; today tourists tick it off as the last of continent visited. The environmental destruction and pollution that comes with tourism, overfishing, and climate change, all endanger the penguins. Raymond manages to educate readers through the characters and the action.

I loved this book. It is so original in concept and the writing is beautiful.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
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About Midge Raymond

Midge Raymond

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Midge Raymond is the author of the novel My Last Continent and a short-story collection, Forgetting English, which received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Poets & Writers, and many other publications.

Midge is also the author of Everyday ...more