Under the Great Bear

The Great Bear watches over northern waters, and Kirk Munroe sends a young man into its gaze. Cabot Grant has just graduated as an engineer, yet stands in the shadow of his more confident classmates, uncertain whether he has what it takes. When his guardian offers him passage on a sailing expedition with the wealthy Thorpe Walling, Cabot seizes the opportunity to find himself. But the sea has other plans. The steamer Lavinia meets catastrophe, and Cabot finds himself alone on a life raft, the stars his only company beneath the Great Bear constellation. What follows is a tale of survival, self-reliance, and the brutal education the natural world provides. Munroe, writing in the early twentieth century, understood that a young man's character is forged not in classrooms but in moments of crisis. For readers who love classic adventure narratives and stories of emerging manhood, this novel delivers white-knuckle tension and quiet reflection in equal measure.