The Accidental Explorer

In these acclaimed essays, Sherry Simpson recounts her experiences as an ordinary woman confronting the vast expanses of water and wilderness of her home state. Her adventures include a harrowing bear encounter and a near-death experience falling into a glacial river, but she also finds an Alaska of surpassing, almost supernatural beauty and power. These lyrical essays thoughtfully explore one woman's effort to map both a sense of place and a sense of self in a world at once comforting and unforgiving.