I was tied off to trees on the bank, licking wounds and repairing broken bits of boat, while killer whales came to rest nearby. And as I sat there drinking a cup of lukewarm tea that smelled of bilge water, resting half asleep, half in a kind of exhaustive coma, sleeping with eyes open, brain taking care of itself, this story . . .

Leif’s story . . .

like a soul dancing on sweeping raven wings . . .

started to come into me.

The wild sea coast Leif covers is a mythical frontier, inspired by the North American coast I travelled as well as the Norwegian coast of my ancestors. For certain, vast distances have been travelled by wooden canoes. Indeed, canoes only slightly bigger than Leif’s, connected in pairs side by side with cross poles tied down to make a crude catamaran, have crossed oceans.

Still, there were places on my own journey where Leif could simply not have gone; inlets with tidal currents so powerful it is nearly impossible to broach it and enter the fjord. One such place is named Ford’s Terror Fjord, where I made it through and long-camped (as Leif would say). It is stunningly beautiful once you are in, with waterfalls and rivers and salmon-fishing bear, but getting there would be tricky and potentially dangerous in something as slight as a dugout canoe.

Cholera is the disease that triggers Leif’s journey – a common killer throughout history, and one that still affects up to four million people a year around the world. It is caused by fecal matter infected with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae getting into food or drinking water – a typical method of spreading is flies carrying it from waste to food or water – and it has a gestation-to-lethality period of between one or two hours to five days. It can lead to an awful death by diarrhoea and vomiting, causing massive dehydration and total system shutdown, but today is preventable through vaccination and sanitary measures and curable by aggressive rehydration techniques and antibiotics.

The truth is, much of what Leif faced was because he was in ‘not a safe place,’ but then, as he put it, his whole life was not a safe place. But by taking things as they came, staying open to the concept of learning, knowing and learning, and having a measure of luck, which Leif had, it was possible to survive.

And go north.

About the Author

Gary Paulsen (1939–2021) wrote more than two hundred books for children and adults. Three of his novels – Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room – were Newbery Honor books. In 1997, he received the ALA’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature. His books have sold over 35 million copies around the world.

Books by Gary Paulsen published by
Macmillan Children’s Books

Hatchet

Hatchet: The Return

Gone to the Woods: A True Story of Growing Up in the Wild

How to Train Your Dad

Northwind