With thanks to the author, publishers Harper Collins and Mariner Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. I have always enjoyed reading about the polar exploits of men such as Shackleton, Scott, Crean etc, but had somehow never heard of Umberto Nobile and the part played by airships in the history of polar exploration before coming across this book. The second half of the book that focused on the main incident with the N-4 itself and its aftermath was particularly interesting. The level of suffering endured by those men was extraordinary, while the apparent indifference shown by the Italian political regime to their fate was astonishing in equal measure. The first half of the book dealt more with the history of airships in polar exploration and set the political context but, while it did provide some interesting background on the rivalry between Nobile and Amundsen, was perhaps a little too forensic in its level of detail for me, and I found myself struggling through it to get to the N-4 part of the story. I’m sure others would appreciate that level of detail a bit more than I did though. All in all, though, this is undoubtedly a thoroughly researched and well-written account of the N-4 disaster and the subsequent rescue mission.