Book Review: Nord For Det Øde Hav by Liv Balstad

An incredible real-life account of life in the Arctic.

Nord For Det Øde Hav – or North Of The Desolate Sea, if you prefer the translation is the story of Liv Balstad’s nine year long adventure in Longyearbyen, Svalbard where she lived and worked as a radio hostess, wife, mother and in support of her husband, the governor of the archipelago at the time.

She had a huge variety of roles at his side, probably many more than I can remember and mention here, but she helped govern the community, hosted visitors almost continously – both officials, but also friends, family and others – and her time spent up there appears to have been a constant adventure.

Longyearbyen is a former coal mining company town, founded on John Munroe Longyear’s mining site after the Norwegians bought it off him and built up the town in and around the valley. And yes, they named it after him. It has since then grown to become an international little society full of research, exploration, and education. It has slowly grown out of being a mining-based company town, and this year the last Norwegian coal mine was officially closed.

I want to emphasis again that this is a real-life account, these are her memoirs, and the reason I wanted to read this is because I’m living up here now. I lived here for a couple of years between 2019-2022, and I’m back now. There’s something very fascinating about reading the history of a place you know and live in. Sure, a lot has changed since Liv lived here in the ’40s and ’50s, but still, so much of it is so recognizable and still here for me to experience. I can walk the roads she walked, take in the views she describes and breathe the air she breathed (you know what I mean).

Her account is incredibly detailed. The book is long, describing everything from daily life, dinner parties, official responsibility, terrible disasters that claimed countless lives, but also the good, fun, festive things that happened in between. Sure, it’s a bit of a heavy read consider it’s age (published in 1956), but it’s still surprisingly good.

I’m not sure there’s an English translation (I read the original Norwegian), but if there isn’t that’s a shame. Because the adventures detailed in this tome, in one of the most remote places in the world, at the edge of the world at 78 degrees north are incredible. Highly recommended if you like memoirs and real-life accounts of historic people – but perhaps particularly if you’re only dipping your toes into the genre. This is a great place to start.

Have you read anything exciting lately? Found a new favorite author? Anything you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments!

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