Kvitøya
Winner of the 2025 August Prize for Non-Fiction.
In Kvitøya, Bea Uusma returns to the Arctic landscape to continue her decades-long investigation into the fate of the doomed Andrée expedition. Armed with modern tools—advanced imaging, artificial intelligence, and forensic science—Uusma leads a new polar expedition to White Island. With archaeologists, specialists, and trained sniffer dogs, she conducts the first archaeological excavation ever performed at the site, hoping to uncover physical traces and remains that could shed new light on one of history’s great exploration tragedies.
This book is a standalone sequel to her August Prize-winning The Expedition: A Love Story, blending scientific precision with a profoundly personal narrative. Uusma, a physician and author, applies her medical expertise to interpret findings and understand the human toll behind the expedition’s mysterious end.
Kvitøya is a gripping story of obsession, perseverance, and forensic detective work. It takes the reader to the ends of the earth—and into the unrelenting pursuit of answers by one woman who refuses to let the past remain buried.
Bea Uusma, born 1966, is an illustrator, physician, and author. During her medical studies she initiated and wrote a detailed report about the Andrée expedition, putting forward new facts about the camp and the possible causes of death. Her internationally awarded debut from 1999, about the Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, The Man Who Went to…
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About the book
Winner of the 2025 August Prize for Non-Fiction.
In Kvitøya, Bea Uusma returns to the Arctic landscape to continue her decades-long investigation into the fate of the doomed Andrée expedition. Armed with modern tools—advanced imaging, artificial intelligence, and forensic science—Uusma leads a new polar expedition to White Island. With archaeologists, specialists, and trained sniffer dogs, she conducts the first archaeological excavation ever performed at the site, hoping to uncover physical traces and remains that could shed new light on one of history’s great exploration tragedies.
This book is a standalone sequel to her August Prize-winning The Expedition: A Love Story, blending scientific precision with a profoundly personal narrative. Uusma, a physician and author, applies her medical expertise to interpret findings and understand the human toll behind the expedition’s mysterious end.
Kvitøya is a gripping story of obsession, perseverance, and forensic detective work. It takes the reader to the ends of the earth—and into the unrelenting pursuit of answers by one woman who refuses to let the past remain buried.
