This book was written out of Gretel Ehrlichs love for winterfor remote and cold places, for the ways winter frees our imagination and invigorates our feet, mind, and souland also out of the fear that our democracy of gratification has irreparably altered the climate. Over the course of a year, Ehrlich experiences firsthand the myriad expressions of cold, giving us marvelous histories of wind, water, snow, and ice, of ocean currents and weather cycles. From Tierra del Fuego in the south to Spitsbergen, east of Greenland, at the very top of the world, she explores how our very consciousness is animated and enlivened by the archaic rhythms and erupting oscillations of weather. We share Ehrlichs experience of the thrills of cold, but also her questions: What will happen to us if we are deseasoned? If winter ends, will we survive?From the Trade Paperback edition.