Fraser's Penguins

A bittersweet account of the stark beauty of the continent and the climate change that threatens its delicate ecosystem .... Montaigne poetically portrays the daunting Antarctic landscape and gives readers an intimate perspective on its rugged, audacious, and charming penguin and human inhabitants. - PW In this sympathetic firsthand report, Montaigne describes the lives of both the researchers who brave the harsh weather and the penguins whose habitat is quickly becoming inhospitable to their reproduction. Montaigne's compelling account is a clear and impassioned call for environmental action before the consequences of global warming turn catastrophic worldwide. -Rick Roche, Booklist Sobering, fact-based cautionary treatise on the quiet storm of climate change. - Kirkus Richly observed and keenly affecting, Fraser's Penguins is a portrait of a world in the process of disappearing. Fen Montaigne has written an evocative and important book Montaigne is a controlled writer, offering careful and clear explanations of matters technical and lexicographic, biologically microscopic and meteorologically global. But it's his descriptive prowess, his ability to evoke lavender--and cobalt, magenta and violet--without waxing purple, that most impresses .... Sometimes telling less reveals more. At other times, Montaigne gives thrilling, blow-by-blow accounts of bird battles and breakups .... Fraser's Penguins leaves one feeling exhilarated--by these remarkable creatures, the landscape they inhabit and the scientists who've devoted their lives to studying both. --Elizabeth Royte, The New York Times Book Review Exceptionally poignant. [Montaigne] voices the emotions that inundate everyone who works in this vast wilderness. And he captures details such as the fantastic scenery as the boat picks its way through broken sea ice dotted with resting seals and groups of penguins squint-eyed under a dazzling light. --Yvon Le Maho,