The Inuit Way : A Journey across Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

A mesmerising account of Polar travel by explorer and award-winning researcher Edward Cooper, The Inuit Way follows his journey across northwest Greenland, where he spent several months living and hunting with the Inuit, before venturing with a teammate across the sea ice to the Canadian Arctic islands. There, Cooper's quest is to track down a note left by British Arctic explorer David Haig-Thomas nearly a hundred years previously.

Suffering from frostbite, fighting off hungry polar bears, and surrounded by the white wolves of Ellesmere Island, Cooper and his teammate—battling snow blindness—discover a land steeped in culture and history. Part travelogue, part adventure and part history, this thrilling narrative offers vivid insights into the people who live in the Arctic year-round. Meet Mikael, a young Inuit hunter who sleeps in a small tent on the sea ice fishing for halibut during the winter months. Join Cooper watching Inuit hunters coach crack teams of dogs across the ice in the year's first dog race. Get to know a former Danish drug smuggler turned hunter. Experience the realities of Arctic life—drinking water carved from icebergs by giant trucks, and the constraints imposed on sanitation by permafrost and freezing temperatures. And journey with Cooper on a life-endangering expedition where he falls through a crack in the ice into icy waters while his teammate continues onwards, oblivious to the danger.

Reflecting on his experience, Cooper appraises Haig-Thomas's legacy and considers how life has evolved for Inuit families across the following century. Above all, he sensitively discusses Greenland as a litmus test for a world evolving through geopolitical shifts and climate change. A fascinating book for intrepid travellers, adventure enthusiasts, Polar explorers—armchair or otherwise—and anyone interested in the environment, indigenous communities, and the realities of life at the edge of the world.