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Four Against the Arctic: Shipwrecked for Six Years at the Top of the World | 
 enlarge | Author: David Roberts
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $2.85
You Save: $11.15 (80%)
New (36) Used (27) Collectible (1) from $1.41
Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 759349
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0743272315
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9780743272315
ASIN: 0743272315
Publication Date: August 30, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
While reading Valerian Albanov's In the Land of White Death, David Roberts came across the mention of an old legend of four shipwrecked Russian sailors who had managed to survive six years stranded on a barren island in the high Arctic. Incredulous, Roberts -- an expert on exploration literature who had never heard of this account -- was determined to learn the truth behind this extraordinary story. Little did he know that his search would ultimately bring him closer to the experiences of these four survivors than he had imagined.In 1743 four survivors of a Russian shipwreck in the Arctic Ocean were trapped on a tiny island with only twenty pounds of flour for food. With ingenuity and courage they endured six years of nearly unimaginable hardship, with only driftwood to fuel their life-saving fires, and the constant threat of attack from polar bears (they would kill ten with homemade lances). Roberts's quest to document their story would take him across two continents and culminate in his own expedition to the remote and desolate shores where these mysterious sailors had been marooned. Riveting and haunting, Four Against the Arctic chronicles an incredible true story.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 A bit misleading August 11, 2008
I got this book because the title seemed to suggest it would be a story about FOUR AGAINST THE ARCTIC. It's not. The book is an endless description of David Roberts research into the story I hoped to learn more about. While Roberts telling of his story is creative and his research thorough, this reader would have appreciated having a title that described what the book was really about. This is not the first time I have seen a book title by this publisher that seems to mislead readers just a bit. It's disappointing.
Ego Trip August 6, 2008
While the parts about the Russian sailors are interesting, the book rapidly degrades into the author's ego trip as the book becomes more about what a clever researcher he is and less about the sailors. What a shame.
 Should be titled "The Search for the Story of Four Against the Arctic" August 6, 2008
This book is NOT the story of the four Russian sailors shipwrecked for four years in the Arctic. It is the story of the author researching the story of the four Russians. He does uncover some interesting bits about early Russian and Norwegian Arctic exploration but it is all buried in 288 pages of the author's self importance.
 Everything it says it is, and more. April 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is difficult to understand why anyone would state as a COMPLAINT that "The book is about David Roberts and his research into a survival story." Yes, that is EXACTLY what it is. Roberts' story-within-a-story is accessable, immediate, often humorously self-disparaging, and it shows a drive for knowledge which one can only admire.
I was captured by the end of the first paragraph of the introduction, and I couldn't put it down. Great stuff.
It Goes Nowhere April 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I kept going with this book because I felt it just had to get better at some point-but it doesn't. As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a story about research, not about the four men who survived the shipwreck. I was hoping the polar bears would get the whole boring lot of them, but no luck with that, either.
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