Das Lachen der Pinguine - Caroline Mikkelsen, die erste Frau in der Antarktis (German Edition)

In the early 1930s Danish born Caroline Mikkelsen has just married a Norwegian sea captain, and is struggling to acclimate to life in a new country all on her own. When the chance comes to accompany her husband on one of his trips to Antarctica, she all but jumps at the opportunity.

In 1995 Australian journalist Jesse Brubaker dreams of writing a prize-winning article, and has her heart set on the story of the first woman to set foot on Antarctica. Unfortunately, all she has to go on is a name from 60 years before.

Caroline Mikkelsen and the Torshavn crew in Antarctica

As a historical account of women's life in the 1930s and 40s this was a very gripping tale. From life as a fairly independent and worldly 25-year-old, to house wife in a show more foreign country, then a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica, and finally building a new life in the aftermath of captain Mikkelsen's death was one hell of a ride. As simplistic as it may seem on the surface, it truly inspired me, making me want to do similarly impressive (if unassuming) stuff.

In contrast, Jesse Brubaker's life was just a series of depressing monologues and near misses in her career. While I understand the author's intent in putting the two women's stories side by side, I think she set the journalist up for failure, even if the ending tries to soften the blow. Basically, this was a comparison between an extraordinary woman from 90 years ago, and an ordinary woman from 30 years ago.

Captain Mikkelsen and Caroline surrounded by penguins

Caroline's story pretty much stands on its own, even without a comparison. I mean, this novel's target audience are presumably contemporary 30-40 year old career women, rather than centenarian grannies going all "at her age I had to walk barefoot around town".

If a comparison was a must, I would've gone for a similarly extraordinary woman, like say Diana Patterson, the first woman to be in charge of the Australian Antarctic station. Also the actual person who met the elderly Caroline Mikkelsen.


Caroline Mikkelsen and Diana Patternson. Click for full image and article (in German).

Score: 3.7/5 stars

For all that I now know that many details of Caroline Mikkelsen's life in this novel are fictionalised, I still loved reading about them. Perhaps it was the novelty, or maybe the unusually pragmatic approach to romance with a sea captan. In any case, I found this a wonderfully inspirational story of a brilliant woman, way ahead of her time.

I would've ditched the modern-day parallel though, and shown the interview from an elderly Caroline's perspective.

ARC provided by Amazon Publishing Deutschland via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

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2023 Reading Challenge: book 3 of 20 written in German. show less