To The Bright Edge Of The World by Eowyn Ivey

 

This novel is told in both modern times and in the late 1800's.  In 1885, Colonel Allen Forester leads an expedition into Alaska to open up the Wolverine River and the vast territory that has been unexplored.  He leaves behind his wife, Sophie.  The two write letters to each other about his journey and her studies of photography and birds.  Forrester also writes a journal, hoping that it will somehow survive and tell the story of the journey.

Sophie is not the typical wife of the 1880's.  Left behind on a military base, she scandalizes the other wives by refusing to take part in the established social life of military wives.  Instead, her best friend is the young girl hired to do the housework and the two spend their days out in the wilds, learning about photography and documenting the birds of the area.  

In modern times, one of the Colonel's descendants sends the material he finds in his attic to the curator of the Alaskan museum closest to where the expedition took place.  The two men form a friendship through their exchange of material and information and the museum plans to mount an exhibition.

Eowyn Ivey is an American writer who was brought up in Alaska and lives there now.  She uses Alaska as the location of many of her novels, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize.  In this novel, the reader learns about the Alaskan wilderness and the difficulties encountered opening it up.  They also learn about the Native Americans that lived there along with some of their culture.  The beginnings of photography and the difficulty of taking pictures in that time are covered along with the social mores that constricted women whose every move was prescribed.  The love between Sophie and Allen is warm and gives the book its stable base.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.