"A luminous work of historical fiction that explores the far reaches of the Arctic and of men's souls." —Denver Post Capturing a crucial moment in the history of exploration—the mid-nineteenth century romance with the Arctic—Andrea Barrett's compelling novel tells the story of a fateful expedition. Through the eyes of the ship's scholar-naturalist, Erasmus Darwin Wells, we encounter the Narwhal's crew, its commander, and the far-north culture of the Esquimaux. In counterpoint, we meet the women left behind in Philadelphia, explorers only in imagination. Together, those who travel and those who stay weave a web of myth and mystery, finally discovering what they had not sought, the secrets of their own hearts.

Born deep in the ocean, Kelp is not like the other narwhals and one day, when he spies a creature on land that looks like him, he learns why.

Spanning two centuries, an intricately woven collection of stories and novellas journeys across landscapes of yearning, awakening, loss, and unexpected discovery as the lives of extraordinary characters unfold in a borderland between science and passion.

"Learn all about narwhals! These magnificent tusked creatures of the sea come to life through carefully leveled text and vivid images! Critical thinking questions and a photo glossary supply readers with the basic building blocks for reading nonfiction"--

From the 1996 National Book Award-winning author of "Ship Fever and Other Stories". What begins as a classic boy-meets-girl tale in 1955 becomes something far different when marriage and two children do not bring a family closer together. "Lucid Stars" is the moving story of how one family learns to survive by becoming a planetary system that just happens to be missing its sun.

Barrett's two previous novels won her comparisons to Gail Godwin and Anne Tyler. The Middle Kingdom--now available in trade paper--is the story of a dutiful wife in an unhappy marriage who accompanies her husband on a business trip to China. But once there she falls out of love with her husband and into love with the country and its culture.

Purports to be the journal of Zoticus de Lesseps, written on an ill-fated 1863 voyage accompanying Captain Nemo to explore the mysteries of the deep sea.