In his old schooner the 'Octavius' a huge shaman, called Pisuktuk by the Inuit, has wandered over the vast and desolate wastes of the Arctic for generations, witnessing the ravages caused by the white men. One day he rescues an Englishman, Leon Vaughan, who, on a journey to fulfill a lifetime's ambition to see the Arctic, crashes on the ice. The two men become good friends until the day that Leon discovers the real identity of his host. Then all his overweening ambition takes possession of him and he makes a daring bid for fame and fortune. His plan leads him into a maze of trickery and deception which eventually ends in a terrible and tragic conclusion. This is a tale of darkness and deceit and a warning against the 'hubris' of modern humanity's worship of science and technology. Leon's egoistic pursuit of his ambitions plunges his girlfriend Sonia, Pisuktuk, and himself into destruction - just as humanity's ambitions in the Arctic must inevitably destroy that beautiful wilderness. In the story Eskimos and Samis appear as real people worthy of our sympathy. Yet there is another, stranger dimension to the story involving Pisuktuk's mysterious encounter with a young woman when he pours out his life story to her while she is in a state halfway between waking and sleeping. The result is a fantastic creation of myth and fiction which the young woman believes she has dreamed. Eventually it became one of the most celebrated stories in the world.
About the Author: Peter Foreman was born and educated in London, but left the big bad city to travel and teach in Europe. He lived and worked in Italy, Spain and Greece. Then he began to write material for students of English which was published by CIDEB, an Italian scholastic publisher, until it was taken over by De Agostini. He also has a mystery story published by Oxford University Press. With a lifetime interest in literature behind him Peter began to write his own stories. Fascinated by Gothic writers, he tried his hand at the genre, and found that he wanted to extend it by adding his own ideas and preoccupations. Besides 'Pisuktuk of the Arctic', so far he has written 'Aurelie', a supernatural romance set on The Channel Island of Alderney, a collection of stories, and has recently finished 'The Bronzes from the Sea', a novel of ideas based on the discovery of two Greek bronze statues in Calabria. Besides writing, Peter enjoys reading in a wide range of subjects from history to astrophysics, going to the cinema, dining and drinking with friends and family, good conversation, travelling and walking.