Synopses & Reviews
A remarkable adventure, a love story, and a thrilling race are all front and center in this account of how one woman's devotion to her late husband's memory transformed Mina Hubbard from a rural nurse into the most celebrated female explorer of her time.
In 1903, following an ambitious expedition to map the interior of Labrador, Mina's husband, Leonidas, died of starvation in a cold, boggy, wind-scoured landscape. The news devastated Mina, but even more devastating were the accusations by Dillon Wallace, Leonidas's partner, that the expedition failed due to his incompetence. The allegations so infuriated Mina that she launched her own expedition at a time when a woman's place was the home, not adventuring.
The expedition took place at the same time that Dillon Wallace was launching his second attempt; so the race was on. Using her late husband's original route so as to vindicate both herself and Leonidas, Mina and her native crew discovered a landscape that was at once alluring and formidable. Driven by her devotion, Mina won the race, beating Wallace by a month and a half, and became in the process the first white woman to make contact with the elusive Naskapis Indians.
Using original source material and the memoirs of the main actors in this remarkable drama, the author pieces together a page-turning narrative of the race between Mina and Wallace, as well as the fateful first expedition of Leonidas Hubbard.
Review
“Randall Silvis is this countrys most pitch-perfect stylist, and one of a few writers in his generation who will make a difference.”
Pulitzer Prize nominee William Allen
"Silvis's lively rendering of this course of events celebrates the steely determination of Canada's first female explorer. It also captures the untamed beauty of Labrador as a place of both danger and intrigue."--Winnipeg Free Press
"Heart So Hungry is a notable addition to the literature of northern exploration."--The Globe and Mail
Synopsis
A gripping cold-weather true-life adventure of a race across Labrador and one womans determination--inspired by grief and fed by outrage--to set the record straight
About the Author
Randall Silvis is the author of eight books, a Senior Fulbright Fellow, and the Thurber House writer-in-residence. His many awards include the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the National Playwrights Showcase Award, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their two sons.