The Birthday Boys (1000 Books to Read)

Such a SAD book!!! It is historical fiction in that it imagines what might have happened on that fatal Antarctic expedition of 1912 where EVERYONE died! YIKES! 

I learned a lot, but I will never understand why people do things like this! 

Here is an interview with the author:

I have owned this book for such a long time that it went to the bottom of my stack with books that had a due date ahead of it. Well, I got to the bottom of my library check out stack, and I decided to go for it today. I was reading from the print book, but then I found it on Internet Archive, and it had an audio read of the digital book! I went for a walk and finished! 

This is my last 1000 Book to Read on my summer reading list. I am now at 509/1000 books, and it has been a good summer. I am going to slow down after this. I will read more books for pleasure now; and if I am looking for a book to read, I may go back to the list. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

 James Mustich

Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated 1912 Antarctic expedition is one of the great adventure stories of all time, and the mythic resonance of its misfortunes seems to deepen with each passing decade. In her novel The Birthday Boys, Beryl Bainbridge envisions the unfolding tragedy through the eyes of Captain Scott and the four men who died alongside him. The “boys” of the title are Scott and his polar companions, each of whom the author allows to recount a stage of the expedition. Through these evocative first-person narratives, Bainbridge memorably captures the humanity of the explorers. Amid the beauty and terror of their surroundings, and under cruel and incredible sufferings, their admiration, affection, and their love for one another become the most remarkable revelations of this gripping tale. The author illuminates the power of male bonding as tellingly as any novelist ever has.