Terra Nova: A Novel

by Henriette Lazaridis

Overview

A haunting story of love, art, and betrayal, set against the heart-pounding backdrop of Antarctic exploration—from the Boston Globe-bestselling author of The Clover House.

“Ingenious”—New York Times Book Review

The year is 1910, and two Antarctic explorers, Watts and Heywoud, are racing to the South Pole.  Back in London, Viola, a photo-journalist, harbors love for them both.  In Terra Nova, Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly ushers the reader back and forth between the austere, forbidding, yet intoxicating polar landscape of Antarctica to the bustle of early twentieth century London.

Though anxious for both men, Viola has little time to pine.  She is photographing hunger strikers in the suffrage movement, capturing the female nude in challenging and politically powerful ways. As she comes into her own as an artist, she's eager for recognition and to fulfill her ambitions.  And then the men return, eager to share news of their triumph.   

But in her darkroom, Viola discovers a lie.  Watts and Heywoud have doctored their photos of the Pole to fake their success.  Viola must now decide whether to betray her husband and her lover, or keep their secret and use their fame to help her pursue her artistic ambitions. 

Rich and moving, Terra Nova is a novel that challenges us to consider how love and lies, adventure and art, can intersect. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639362431
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	729,129
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Henriette Lazaridis is the author of The Clover House (a Boston Globe bestseller), Terra Nova (which the New York Times called “ingenious”), and Last Days in Plaka (publishing April 2024). She earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston. She was the founding editor of The Drum Literary Magazine and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. Her essays and articles have been published in Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and Pangyrus, and earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. An avid athlete, Henriette trains on the Charles River as a competitive rower, and skis, trail runs, or cycles whenever she can. She writes about athletic and creative challenges at The Entropy Hotel on Substack. Visit her website: www.henriettelazaridis.com.   

Editorial Reviews

10/03/2022

Lazaridis (The Clover House) draws inspiration from Robert Falcon Scott’s polar expedition of 1912 for this expressive if schematic tale of male camaraderie and female empowerment. In 1910, explorer Edward Heywoud and photographer James Watts, Edward’s friend, team up in the race to be the first to reach the South Pole. Meanwhile, in London, Edward’s wife, Violet, a photographer and suffragette, exhibits a series of photos documenting suffragettes who were beaten by prison guards while on a hunger strike, their scars and bruises bared while posed like the subjects of classical paintings. As Edward and James approach the Pole, Edward makes a shocking discovery that causes a rift between the two men. Temporarily putting differences aside, they reach the Pole and return home to a hero’s welcome. But when Violet develops James’s glass plate negatives, she sees something that casts doubt on the men’s accomplishment, precipitating a moral crisis. The author pulls off visceral descriptions of the cold, hunger, and drive of the explorers, and of the London women’s determination to fight for their rights. Unfortunately, Violet, Edward, and James are essentially one-dimensional characters, and the melodramatic plot developments feel static. When it comes to fictional accounts of the Scott expedition, Beryl Bainbridge’s The Birthday Boys still commands the lead. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"The novel’s high points are the spectacular descriptions of endurance in the icy wastes and how it makes the reader reflect on the differences between female and male heroism, the risks one might take in the pursuit of fame or love, and whether it is ever possible to live with dishonor and lies.

Historical Novel Society

"At first, it’s the forbidding ice sheets of Antarctica, a 'place that offers beauty with a fist,' that dominate Henriette Lazaridis’s ingenious new novel. In contrast, the novel’s alternating narrative, set back in London in the comfortable household of Heywoud’s wife, Viola, initially seems less encumbered by intense physical sacrifice and ruthless ambition. But, as we all know, appearances can be deceiving. Lazaridis adds provocative shading to these two visions of heroism. When the two strands of the narrative unite and then combust, the 'terra nova' of the novel’s title turns out to be a 'new world' not of the land but of the mind."

New York Times Book Review

"Richly developed. In early 20th century Britain, heroic women risked their lives to win voting rights, and men defied death by launching expeditions to the Antarctic. On the surface, these historic struggles don't appear to have much in common, yet Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly links them in Terra Nova, a literary novel that highlights their common denominator: how far men and women will go to achieve their goals."

Star Tribune

"Terra Nova’s strength lies in its impressive marriage of art and exploration. Lazaridis relishes in long, gorgeous descriptions of scenes and explanations of shot-framing and darkroom photo processing as intimate as a love letter. This underlying stream of artistic enchantment hits the mark and keeps the pages turning.”

Associated Press

"Terra Nova is just plain fantastic. From Viola, willing to risk all for women’s suffrage, to her husband—traveling with her secret lover—who risks all to be the first to reach the South Pole, this novel is an intelligent, literary page-turner of the best type. Full of human frailty, heartbreak, lies and deceit, yet also adventure, love and self-sacrifice while exploring the human drive to become more than we are. Bravo.

B.A. Shapiro

"What would you risk to fulfill a desperate ambition? Whom would you betray if you had to—and at what cost to you, the ones you love, the world? Set against the dazzling frozen backdrop of 1910 Antarctica, this is a mesmerizer about love, rivalry, and the indominable strength of one of the best, most complex female characters I’ve read in years."

Caroline Leavitt

Terra Nova is like Jack London and Anita Shreve had a literary baby: an absolutely immersive story of Antarctic survival, suffrage, a love triangle, art, and betrayal. Engrossing from the first moment to the last page, when you’ll immediately return to the beginning to start again.”

Jenna Blum

"I read this brilliant novel in one sitting. Dazzling, intimate, and spare, TERRA NOVA is a story of love and adventure, ambition and betrayal, artfully told with a taut suspenseful power."

Dawn Tripp

The title, Terra Nova, is an homage to British Antarctic explorer Robert Falon Scott. Into her novel, Lazaridis weaves another story entirely. And the blend works.”

Boston Globe

Lazaridis masterfully explores the human cost extracted from any attempt to conquer a new frontier—whether it be reaching a distant patch of ice, winning a fundamental human right, or securing artistic freedom—and forces us to contemplate what one person owes to another in the process. I was spellbound from the first polar storm and mesmerized by every click of Viola’s camera. In the end, TERRA NOVA is an exploration of the human heart, what we desire, what we require, and what we are willing to sacrifice to achieve it. I couldn’t put it down."

Katherine A. Sherbrooke

"The novel’s high points are the spectacular descriptions of endurance in the icy wastes and how it makes the reader reflect on the differences between female and male heroism, the risks one might take in the pursuit of fame or love, and whether it is ever possible to live with dishonor and lies.

The Historical Novels Review

"Terra Nova is a deeply compelling novel. Heywoud, Watts and Viola Colfax are fully alive on the page, and the reader feels for them as they each find their way through the intricacies of love, adventure, loyalty and ambition.”

Authorlink.com

"From the blinding ice of Antarctica to the boisterous rallies of London’s suffragettes, this is a novel of muscular prose and indelible vividness. It is also a gripping examination of the differences between male and female heroism: how men and women explore, take risks and muster courage. With strong-willed characters caught in impossible circumstances, Terra Nova examines uncharted lands and shows a way to many new worlds."

author of The Baker’s Secret Stephen Kiernan

A stunning debut novel.

USA Today on The Clover House (2013)

An insightful examination of memory and the stories that hold us together—or perhaps tear us apart.

The Boston Globe on The Clover House (2013)

A powerful story of family, betrayal, and forgiveness . . . In her first novel, Power melds the stories of mother and daughter into an absorbing tale.

Booklist on The Clover House (2013)

A gripping, tender story that spans continents and generations as it delves into the secrets of a Greek American family altered by a long-ago tragedy in World War II. Told with quiet power and authenticity, it’s a reader’s treat.

Kate Alcott

A tremendously readable story of how family secrets reverberate, how war can force impossible choices, and how a very modern woman faces old longings for her mother’s love and a true home. This is a smart and lovely novel.

Holly Lecraw

A stunning debut novel.

USA Today

A powerful story of family, betrayal, and forgiveness . . . In her first novel, Power melds the stories of mother and daughter into an absorbing tale.

Booklist

An insightful examination of memory and the stories that hold us together—or perhaps tear us apart.

The Boston Globe

Layered and complex, The Clover House is a provocative examination of family secrets and the things we inherit, a powerful search for self that feels both unique and universal. Lazaridis immerses the reader in a world of tradition and resilience, creating characters who linger long beyond their final pages. This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.”

Brunonia Barry

Advance praise for Terra Nova:

From the Publisher