Terra Nova

by Henriette Lazaridis

A haunting story of love, art, and betrayal, set against the heart-pounding backdrop of Antarctic exploration—from the Boston Globe-bestselling author of The Clover House.

The year is 1910, and two Antarctic explorers, Watts and Heywoud, are racing to the South Pole.  Back in London, Viola, a photo-journalist, harbors love for them both.  In Terra Nova, Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly ushers the reader back and forth between the austere, forbidding, yet intoxicating polar landscape of Antarctica to the bustle of early twentieth century London.

Though anxious for both men, Viola has little time to pine.  She is photographing hunger strikers in the suffrage movement, capturing the female nude in challenging and politically powerful ways. As she comes into her own as an artist, she's eager for recognition and to fulfill her ambitions.  And then the men return, eager to share news of their triumph.   

But in her darkroom, Viola discovers a lie.  Watts and Heywoud have doctored their photos of the Pole to fake their success.  Viola must now decide whether to betray her husband and her lover, or keep their secret and use their fame to help her persue her artistic ambitions. 

Rich and moving, Terra Nova is a novel that to challenges us to consider how love and lies, adventure and art, can intersect. 

 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Historical, Book Club

304 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2022

About the author

Henriette Lazaridis' novel TERRA NOVA was published by Pegasus Books in 2022. The New York Times called TERRA NOVA "ingenious" and "provocative". She is the author of the best-selling novel THE CLOVER HOUSE. Her short work has appeared in publications including Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and elsewhere, and has earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. Henriette grew up in the Boston area as the only child of Greek expats, speaking Greek as her first language. Devoted to storytelling since her childhood bedtime stories from the Odyssey, Henriette earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches at GrubStreet in Boston and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in Greece. You can subscribe for free to her Substack newsletter The Entropy Hotel, about athletic and creative challenges. http://www.henriettelazaridis.substac....

Reviews

[Crystal King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vivid account of seemingly disparate worlds--Antarctic exploration and the British feminist movement--artfully entwined in a page-turning tale of love, art, and adventure. Viola is a magnificent and unexpected character, an activist who photographs hunger-striking suffragettes nude, caught between the life she created without her explorer husband, the betrayal of falling in love with his friend, and the expectations of a marriage shaped by a newfound celebrity spotlight. Terra Nova is an absolutely stunning novel.

[Rosalyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy, my enjoyment went from high to low real quick. The book switches between the wife and husband's POV, and the wife annoyed me so much. She does the thing I hate the most, weaponizing and distorting the message of feminism into "I'm a woman who wants to be independent and free, which means anything I do that's wrong or selfish is really just self expression, and it's misogynistic to blame me." For example, when the husband says she shouldn't have cheated because she is his wife, she says that no one owns her...girl, what? Being married means being monogamous...completely unapologetic in committing adultery.

Also her activist art, which is to take nude photos of suffragette prisoners who participated in hunger strikes, is superficial, as is her artistic reasoning. This is my PERSONAL opinion, but the whole "flip the intention/instead of the exploitative male gaze towards women's bodies, I choose to display myself and take back power" doesn't achieve anything, b/c at the end of the day, you are still naked and being gawked at by the same people. Just because your intention changed doesn't mean theirs did. Even worse, she stylized the trauma of these hunger strikers, treating it like an art project to pose them after Grecian statues, and then putting herself, a perfectly healthy woman, as the focus. It's giving "1st year art student". And the sudden switch of the gallery owner, first refusing to showcase her photos because he didn't want to politicize his work space, then readily accepting once he saw her own nude, because it made her "both object of the art and its creator"?? Like including one normal looking woman amongst the hunger strikers suddenly makes her art representative of the ideas of all women in this movement?

The book could've delved much deeper into at what point does depicting pain in art, especially of living humans, become exploitative, but instead, the focus is on her whining and feeling guilty that hasn't "suffered enough" for the movement, which, news flash, one does not have to literally starve to death to protest something. Her photo exhibit, which to me is just shock value, furthered her own notoriety rather than the cause.

I mainly enjoyed the husband's POV because the author very beautifully depicted the austere, unforgiving, savage beauty of the Arctic. But he's a liar too. So. I don't know what the point of this book was.

[Stephen Kiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Terra nova" means approximately "new land" or "new terrain." This vibrant and vivid novel chronicles two different forays into new terrain: an expedition to the South Pole that is utterly gripping, and simultaneously, the passionate protests to win women the vote in Great Britain.

It's hard to say which is more compelling. Together they make a novel that is very much about ideas nonetheless read like it is an action story.

The characters are all flawed, yet all sympathetic. The factions within political activism, and the role of art in inspire social change, remain rich in dilemmas and never descend into polemic. The description of Antarctic conditions may cause you to put on a sweater before you continue. Best of all, there is never an easy time to takes sides.

Highly recommend.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

TERRA NOVA gripped me hard; the two points of view telling stories of Antarctica exploration and suffrage, from a man and woman connected by tangled threads, were extraordinary. The remarkably different voices were equally incredible to follow. Fascinating settings are matched by hug-to-your-soul characters.

[Anne Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 star rating - Release Date: December 6th, 2022
I received an ARC for Terra Nova and loved it from the moment I saw the cover. This historical-fiction novel seamlessly blends adventure, art, love, lies, and success to give two compelling plot lines that keep the pages turning. Set in 1910, Terra Nova follows two explorers and long-time friends as they fight against the Norwegians to be the first to place their flag at the South Pole. The harsh conditions prove challenging for the Antarctic expedition and the men are forced to take drastic measures to survive. It’s during this fight for life that they realize they have something else to fight for - the love of the same woman. Viola remains in London where she is torn between her affections for her husband and her lover. She shifts her attention to exposing the inequalities between men and women and becomes involved in the Suffrage movement, using her camera to tell the hidden truths about hunger strikers. In a desperate attempt to share her controversial message, Viola makes a deal with a local art dealer that leaves her – and her husband – in his debt. When the two men return victorious and Viola is tasked with developing the photographic evidence, she uncovers more than she expected. Their Polar victory is fake and the success of her own message hinges on her keeping the secret. Viola is faced with exposing the two men she cares about most or using their lie to raise her own profile in the artistic world. An excellent read. I highly recommend that you pre-order your copy from your favorite bookseller now.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, and both halves of the story are fantastic. I was hoping there was a chance of a polyamorous conclusion to the love triangle but sadly it didn't go that way. The strangest thing is that the summary covers a VAST majority of the plot. There's something in the summary that doesn't happen until 82% of the way into the book. It seemed very odd to go that deep into the story for a blurb.

Despite that oddity, though, I think it's a fantastic read, especially if you're interested in Antarctic exploration and/or the suffragette movement in England (I know, I know, people are always combining those two things, so cliche ;) )

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library because I needed a book with a "winter scene" on the front for my Winter Book Bingo. I don't usually choose books mostly for their covers, but fortunately this one also had an intriguing plot summary. The story focuses on two different characters - Viola, a photographer in London in 1910, and her lover, James, who is racing towards the South Pole to plant the British flag there. Complicating matters, James is adventuring together with Viola's husband, Edward. The author draws interesting parallels between the men pushing physical and mental boundaries to explore a new part of the world and Viola at home wishing to push boundaries with her photography and to break new ground politically through her support of Britain's suffragette movement. The men and the women both become embroiled in moral quandaries when they must decide whether it's worth it to bend the truth in order to support their ambitions. Overall, I think the book tried to take on too many complex issues in too short a space - there's room here for a lot more exploration of the characters and their dilemmas. But points for a really interesting premise and some very thought-provoking moral questions.

[Donna Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough book but not particularly satisfying. Many things just happened without being earned. But the novel is clearly a labor of love and that shines through.

[Amber Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved that this was told in two different point of views. I could not put this one down. I had to know what was going to happen next. There was action, drama and some romance. All things I love. It was so interesting to read the tale of survival in the Antarctic then switch over to the suffrage movement. The stories are intertwined so perfectly.

[Diane Jeske · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the early twentieth century, two young Englishmen race to be the first to reach the South Pole. Back in England a young woman uses her photography to capture images of women agitating for the vote. This young woman is the wife of one of the polar explorers, the lover of the other. TERRA NOVA is an interesting exploration of the ways in which ambition is manifested: a life-threatening trek across the most forbidding terrain on the planet, a use of the political engagement of others (and of one’s own body) to make one’s name as an artist, a contest to see who can be the most dedicated hunger striker among the imprisoned suffragettes. While I found myself always at a slight remove from the characters — none of whom is particularly likable — I nonetheless found this to be an interesting and worthwhile read.

[Carol Cronin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story that introduces three characters and their love triangle—though that rom-com term doesn't begin to explain all of their complexities. The tangled web forces us to reconsider what loyalty really means, explores the limits of human starvation (both voluntary and forced by circumstance), and shows the challenges of balancing work and relationships—especially for women in the early 20th century. The descriptions of the Antarctic were so realistic, I was shivering even under a down comforter. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys an adventure, a literary love story, or pretty much anything in between.

[Claudia Zeien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally wanted to read this book as I had recently returned from a trip to Antarctica and was overwhelmed by the endless ice and vastness of the continent. Although my trip was made in complete comfort, it made it easy for me to imagine the harsh conditions that the author so vividly depicts.
But I was drawn even more to the story of Viola in London, and the fight for the right of women to vote.
The two stories merge in a somewhat sad yet satisfying manner — each of the main characters having made choices during their separation that will forever alter their relationships.

[Nanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting novel with parallel storylines. The first deals with two Antarctic explorers who are racing to be the first to the South Pole. The second relates to a photo-journalistic who has become involved in the suffrage movement and is photographing hunger strikers. Both are interesting. What didn't add much to the story for me was the complicating fact that the (female) photo-journalist is openly involved with both of the explorers, one of whom is her husband. Still, a good read.

[Jennifer-L-R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever since I heard and read about Shackleton, I have liked to read about arctic and Antarctic voyages, and this book had that. I liked that part even though it was rough. And the suffrage part in London was good too. And the storyline overall was interesting. But I just didn’t get the deeper ties and meanings. I’m sure they’re there, I just missed them. It’s a quick and engaging read though.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lies and secrets are at the root of this well written and compulsively readable novel set in 1910. Edward and James are in the last push to the South Pole while Edward's wife Viola is expanding her own universe back in London. Viola, an artist, has moved into photography and now she's working with the suffragettes who went on hunger strikes for the cause. She met Edward, an adventurer, through James but the former does not know their relationship continued past their marriage. Yes there's a bit of domestic drama in this but that's not the point or the most interesting part (although it's key to part of the story)- Edward's effort to beat a Norwegian team to plant a flag at the pole. The scenes of their struggle, of their hunger, the cold, the horrors, will stay with you (as will the dogs- keep your eye on Lulu). James is along with Edward so that he can photograph the big flag plant but, as you will learn, there's something wrong, something that Viola will discover when she processes the plates. I've read a lot (a lot) of tales set in Antarctica- this is among the best. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Great read.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical novel about two friends, antarctic explorers, who loved the same female photographer. The novel is set in the UK in early 1910, during the suffragette quest for the vote.

[Cameron Dryden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wow. I’ve read, watched, and loved many ice trek stories, but Terra Nova brought me inside the heads of its protagonists like never before. Couldn’t put it down. Loved both print and audiobooks.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book has put me in the worst reading slump of my life. never has it taken me this long to finish something. it wasn’t terrible at all just incredibly slow. although the last 50 pages were stellar.



ignore side rant (made while reading) : something i did have a problem with was that it somewhat reinforced the idea that mothers are synonymous with caretakers, that a woman’s life will be measured by her children. and while i believe society often expects us to give up our bodies (especially when this book took place in the 1900s), and rebellion is needed to support the cause against it, the story felt off putting and problematic from the perspective of the female lead. it was really giving anti feminism in my opinion, achieving the opposite of what was supposed to be conveyed through a character that screamed performative activist in her expensive home conveniently named “margaretta terrace” like it’s the damn white house or something equipped with servants whom, mind you, were not treated well and the whole time she’s having an affair… WHAT? like girl, how am i supposed to root for you right now. it was also argued that her richness would have an extreme political pull, more important than the hunger strikers; the starving suffragettes who risked everything for freedom. unapologetically using them in an art exhibit without their consent nonetheless.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vivid prose,immersive descriptions,moral dilemmas. Excellent.

[Lindsay Bourgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m in alignment with the reviews that call this a good enough book but not particularly satisfying, and that the description on the jacket really covers the whole entire story and leaves little out. It was well written and I liked the adventure and the plot but the mercurial characters were hard to connect with and the ending, which could have thrown a total wrench, instead seemed a bit passive and dull. Engaging, quick read with great historical coverage and accuracy, just didn’t blow my mind.

[Christina Gagliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars.

I love that the author created the main characters from scratch, rather than writing fictional versions of actual historical characters, and that the complex, morally ambiguous characters reveal the complex, morally ambiguous time and place where they lived.

I could go on and on but just read this book: there's not a single false note in it, and I guarantee a completely engrossing experience.

[Marietje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too melodramatic for me, however it was well written

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictional reimaging of the race for the south pole where England, instead or Norway, wins. Well, sorta. Edward and James are the two who carry on to the pole after various members of their party get sick or injured. Edward is leading the expedition and James is his friend and photographer. James was dating Viola, Edward's wife, before he introduced her to Edward, sealing his fate to always be the other man. Viola loves both men, one who she is married to and the other who she is sleeping with. James taught her everything she knows about photography and she is using that skill to document the suffrage movement, photographing the women who have survived the hunger strikes while in prison in the nude to show the impact. Viola believes that loving and being with 2 men makes her progressive but in reality she is not as devoted as these women who are willing to die for their cause. She knows that once Edward returns she will have to give up her advocacy and return to being just a wife and possibly a mother, but she wants more. She gets a gallery to agree to show her hunger strike photos and the exhibit is set to open just after the men return from the pole. Edward discovers James' diary and learns that he has been having an affair with Viola. If the two men didn't need each other to reach the pole, James would have been killed by Edward. But the two continue on and they find the dead bodies of the Norwegian team and Edward is convinced that they died on the way to the pole, not returning from it. James is skeptical but has no choice but to continue on with Edward. When the 2 reach the pole, the Norwegian flag is there, proving that they arrived first. But Edward says that no one will know because they are dead so he removes the Norwegian flag and plants the Union Jack and forces James to take pictures. James is appalled but once again feels that he has no choice. The men successfully return from the pole to camp and arrive back in England heroes. Edward punishes James by requiring that Viola develop the photos, which doesn't make much sense to me. When she does, she sees the Norwegian flag off in the background of one of the pictures and knows that Edward and James lied. She confronts Edward and he admits the truth, as does James when she runs to him after leaving the house disgusted with Edward. Viola hides the pictures and uses them to blackmail Edward into giving her the freedom that she desires to continue her work. She says that they will stay married, for appearances, and that he will continue to support her but they will live separate lives. James is so jealous of Viola's photography that he leaves her and Edward, either overcome with guilt or shame, kills himself. Not a bad story but it felt long winded at times and might have been more successful as a novella rather than a full novel. Far too many long paragraphs about the film development process and many of them could have been cut out.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much. The intertwined stories of polar adventure and women’s suffrage are two of my interests that don’t typically come in the same novel! The parallels and contrasts between the worlds are beautifully drawn; Lazaridis’ writing is gorgeous. I loved the detail with which we’re brought into Viola’s darkroom, the careful steps of developing photographs which are both her art and her path to unlock a mystery. I loved the suspense, and my uncertainty and ambivalence about each character’s decisions. The novel grapples with big questions about truth, ambition, and the possibility of combining creativity with motherhood, all while keeping its characters flawed and compelling. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end.

Some passages:

He watches through the camera as the smiles drop from the men and Heywoud resumes eating his hoosh, and then he ducks beneath the drape once more to remove the glass plate. It joins nine others in its box and he knows the men are thinking of the weight of it. It is just light he has captured in Paget’s solution of chemicals and egg whites, dried more than a year ago in London. It is just light and it has turned a burden for them all.

He wonders if he would be mad by now—or madder—if he did not several times each day place four edges around this limitless expanse, if he did not enclose the whiteness in the camera’s box.

Their hats brush together and the silk on Viola’s brim makes a small sound like paper tearing.


“I understand that for you a child is lovely. You want a son to be your heir and legacy. For me, a child takes away the kind of legacy I want.”
“What other kind of legacy could you possibly want?”
“As an artist. Surely you know this….Edward, I can’t.” Her voice is loud enough to make him start. “You don’t understand. You can’t understand. I can’t feel connected that way. I can’t be pulled apart that way, the way a child pulls on you.”
“You’re not even making any sense. Besides, a nanny would take care of the child. You would not be pulled.” He uses the word with distaste.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are your words worth? Terra Nova by Henriette Lazaridis explores conquering new territories, whether it be a physical or emotional place, and what it actually means to the world at large. Edward Heywoud is leading an expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole in a race to beat a Norwegian team. Along with him is James Watts, his friend, climbing partner, and a photographer. While Heywoud is chasing glory, Watts is there to document it all. That means lugging heavy camera equipment and plates over the unforgiving frozen expanse of the Antarctic, which has forced other members of the expedition to turn back leaving Heywoud and Watts the final two, leading to a major secret being exposed and a moral choice that could affect everything they've wanted. Back in London, Heywoud's wife, and Watts's ex, Viola, is photographing the increasingly volatile and violent suffrage movement. She gets the opportunity to photograph hunger strikers in the nude showing off the violence bred upon their bodies. But is her project art or documentary proof? In alternating chapters between Antarctica and London, before reuniting them all in London, Lazaridis shows the drive and price of ambition, who it for and what does it personally accomplish. Lazaridis also uses the camera and the act of photography to explore what it means to document something, to place it in the here and now, forever frozen in space and time, and the subjectivity of it all. How subjective is it actually when so much goes into it (framing the shot, arranging the subject, developing it to certain specifications). While a picture is worth a thousand words, what's behind the picture is also worth something, and who knows what the price of that may be.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular novel of polar exploration in Antarctica and the fight of suffragettes in London, this book has so much - history, feminism, art. It’s about an independent woman who finally achieves independence and two courageous men who are destroyed by their cowardice. Until the explorers return to England the chapters alternate between James and Edward, once the closest of friends , and Viola, chafing against Edwardian strictures of a woman’s place. I especially appreciated that each chapter did NOT end on a cliffhanger - I find that such an annoying tease.

The author is able to get into the mind of the exhausted, starving, frozen explorers, their exhilaration and defeat, in a way that reminded me of the best polar memoirs. There was much about the suffrage movement that was new to me, especially around the forced feeding of the hunger strikers and their pain.

Though under 300 pages, this story seemed longer because it was so packed; in addition to the information on polar adventures and the suffragettes, it details the difficulties of women breaking into the art scene so dominated by men and the mechanics of early photography and darkroom work.

This really was a wonderful book with beautiful descriptions of the Antarctic and the hustle and bustle of London at the turn of the last century.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel follows two tales that come together. It tells the story of two British explorers and their fictitious 1910 race to the South Pole and the woman in London who loves them both and travels her own journey of self discovery while awaiting their return. The female character, married to one of the men, is having an affair with the other and decides she must chose between. The Antarctic portion of the novel is by far the most compelling, and I learned only later that Lazaridis has long been interested in Robert Falcon Scott's exploration and his journals. That interest is reflected in her writing, with vivid descriptions of the Antarctic landscape and the mental and physical challenge of early journeys there: the deadly cold and wind that tears apart the flimsy canvas tents , the blindingly bright snow, the hunger and fatigue and the conflict between continuing on and turning back. Lazaridis nonetheless draws the reader into the woman's story too and the book ends by focusing on her journey. This left me disappointed. I had become so involved in their story at the beginning of the book that I wanted to know just as much about them as the story concluded. We only learn limited details, with no interior monologue. But this is a small criticism in an otherwise great read.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terra Nova, translating to mean 'new land,' was an excellent historical fiction novel about two explorers approaching the South Pole in the early 1900s. We join James and Edward as they navigate the treacherous Antarctic, the various challenges that come with being in a frozen desert, and their cravings for success.

The novel also simultaneously ventures to London during the suffragette movement, where we visit marches with Viola, Edward's wife. Though this novel, we learn about various aspects of history in 1910, and I loved the duality of the stories. Henriette Lazaridis had an obsession with Antarctica after learning about Robert Falcon Scott who died during the Polar Race in 1912. She based her book on him, and his wife, Kathleen, who was also an artist like Viola.

It was a unique way to learn more about Antarctica, the suffragette movement, and the power of the vast expanse of ice known as the South Pole. Also an excellent feminist novel, revealing the strength and independence of women even in unknown times.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's 1910. It's London. Suffragettes protest. Explorers head to the South Pole to plant the Union Jack flag as the first.

Three characters dominate the story. Captain Edward Heywoud leads the expedition accompanied by his loyal friend and photographer, James Watts. Viola Heywoud stays behind in London. Her relationship to the two men is central to the story.

Lazaridis' descriptions of the expedition compel readers to grab an extra layer of clothing or a blanket and a much-needed snack. Her descriptions of the suffragettes protests and hunger strikes remind readers the heavy cost to those in the movement.

Points of view shift between the struggling expedition en route and Viola's photographic coverage of the suffragette movement back in London. Communication directly between the two settings is non-existent without huge delays.

Hunger plays a key role in the novel from both settings -- both literally and figuratively -- as hunger for food gives way to hunger for fame and fortune. The latter leads to ethics questions from both the men and Viola.

How far will both women and men go to reach their goals? What role does selfishness play in their decisions?

[Arabella Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous book! A literary page turner (is that an oxymoron?) Terra Nova brings two different worlds together, Antarctic exploration and British suffragism. The strong characters are engaging, but what I remember most a month after reading is the way the two worlds reflect each other. First, like a sonnet, it is beautifully structured and interwoven. But there are such limits of that vision with all its formalism. At times, the themes reflected to both Antartica and London create moments of distortion and play, like a fun house mirror. The characters and scenes reflect each other in amazing ways, never static or predictable. Aesthetically and politically it is a joy, perfectly timed to our moment and beyond.