The Gyre
A Novel
by Stacy Carlson
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An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre spins one man’s search for meaning into an astonishing saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge.
Arkady Afanasyev is a nineteenth-century Russian monk who aims to be the northernmost holy man in the world when he hitches a ride to Spitsbergen, a remote island considered by most to be a no man’s land. As he struggles across the tundra, he’s haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters including hearth spirits, sea demons, and the Twelve Sisters of Scurvy. Amid their uncanny influence and the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.
Content Warning: death, gore, animal attacks, starvation
Praise
“Stacy Carlson has written an enthralling story of flawed, fragile humanity and the uncanny redemptive power of nature at its most brutal. The Gyre is a journey through a stark, glittering wilderness, an unforgettable landscape both terrible and holy in equal measure.”
—Lynn Coady,
Giller Prize-winning author of Hellgoing
“Mythic journeys, fairy tales of ice and snow, sailors’ vodka-addled and lusty dreams, a monk’s poetic yearnings—The Gyre has it all! As we follow Arkady Afanasyev on his journey into the farthest reaches of the Arctic in search of his teacher and himself, we encounter story upon story strung together, like pearls, showing us how we are connected to the water, the ice, the ground, the light, and each other. The Gyre pulls you in and in and into its profoundly beautiful spiral of a story.”
—Kathryn Nuernberger,
author of Held: Essays in Belonging
“This is an absolutely astonishing saga, packed at every turn with innumerable tangential sagas of survival, magic, incomprehensible courage and persistence, and—always—the great, turning, harsh natural world. It zooms the reader to a long ago and far away universe of struggle, quest, agony, and enchantment. Fearlessly imagined and capably written, Stacy Carlson has created a particular, complex, and searingly unforgettable mythology.”
—Joan Frank,
author of Juniper Street: A Novel
“A gripping novel—both a rip-roaring yarn and a deep inquiry into what makes us human. Like a Caspar David Friedrich painting, Carlson’s The Gyre places the human against the immense backdrop of an unforgiving landscape—here, the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard—with dazzling results.”
—Colin Dickey,
author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places and Afterlives of the Saints
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• Fiction | Novel
• 5” x 8” Perfectbound Trade Paperback
• Cream Paper, 258 Pages
• Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-946580-62-7
• Paperback ISBN-10: 1-946580-62-7
• Hardcover ISBN-13: TK
• Hardcover ISBN-10: TK
• Ebook ISBN-13: TK
• Ebook ISBN-10: TK
• LCCN: TK
• First Edition: May 19, 2026
• Short URL: TK
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Cover design by Leah Angstman, with artwork by TK.
About the Author
STACY CARLSON is a novelist, naturalist, and educator. Publishers Weekly called her debut novel, Among the Wonderful, “Intelligent, engrossing, and utterly unique.” Stacy’s essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, Post Road, Inkwell, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and residencies from the Mesa Refuge, The Arctic Circle, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Signal Fire. Her background includes work as a historical ecologist, fish cannery worker, hot springs caretaker, and hiking guide in Big Sur. She grew up between mountains and sea in the Pacific Northwest and has lived in New England, New York, Northern California, and the Upper Midwest.
Media & Images
• Coming soon.
Distribution & Sales
Booksellers can order this book through their Ingram ordering catalogs for 50% discount with free returns or through Asterism Books for 50% discount with no returns (we will accept free returns of Asterism purchases back to us directly; please email altcurrentpress @ gmail . com if you need this return service option).
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