... a striking, brave and often lyrical book that defies easy interpretation.

The pair are informative, entertaining company.

... captures rarely observed natural places.

Cunningham writes with urgency.

Information about whales and climate change are intertwined in the narrative in this lyrical, and informative memoir of a woman who has known strength and happiness in the past and is determined to reclaim them through her affinity with the whales.

Cunningham is consistently forthcoming and self-aware, and she delivers an informed perspective on climate change and ecological damage with (mostly) gentle insistence. She also relates a harrowing history of Anglo attempts to homogenize and destroy traditional Inuit lifestyles—though occasionally she succumbs to an ideological rant. In her own field, she deplores the continued failures of environmental journalism to counteract the false balance and distortions served up by corporate deniers. A gorgeous, heartfelt coda brings the narrative to a close, and we can’t deny our own sympathies.