The Outposters

At the subantarctic end of the world, a woman navigates, grief, forgiveness, and the strange things we do to survive

“Wry, tender, utterly immersive…I was under its spell until the very last page.” —Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

When Frankie Nickel accepts a job running HR for The Outpost, a misbegotten eco-resort under construction in the South Atlantic, she hopes that she and her husband Lou can escape their grief over a tragic loss they suffered five years earlier. It’s a more dramatic change of scene than Lou had in mind (“I meant, like, Portland!”), but Frankie, a lapsed environmentalist and David Attenborough acolyte, sees a lot to like about an uninhabited island and together, she and Lou head south.

At first, Frankie is drawn in by the otherworldly landscape, her eccentric colleagues, and enough drunken karaoke sessions to get her through the punishing winter. But life at The Outpost takes a turn when a new friend’s crisis puts Frankie and Lou in a precarious position, and Frankie finds that the old adage “wherever you go, there you are” holds true even at this far end of the earth. Soon she’s forced to navigate the complexities of her war-weary marriage, the temptation of new love, and the impossible task of saving her friend without sinking herself, all while the resort marches toward its grand opening.

With sparkling humor, wisdom, and empathy, Rebeca Herman explores both the challenges and the unexpected rewards that life throws our way, often in the unlikeliest places. 

• “Dazzling and deeply felt, The Outposters is a piercing exploration of grief and the bewildering and beautiful work of continuing to live. Wise, wry, and alive with startling insight, Rebecca Herman writes with tremendous intelligence and heart, shining her singular light on the ways we survive ourselves and one another. I loved this novel.”
  Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman and Godshot
• “Rebecca Herman has written a haunting masterpiece, with an exquisitely rendered voice that combines tragedy and humor to address one of the defining crises of our time. Exploring themes of marriage and friendship, betrayal and forgiveness, forbidden love and unimaginable loss, The Outposters takes its readers on a thrilling journey from heartbreaking darkness to shimmering light. A wise, searing, and unforgettable debut.”
  Bruce Holsinger, author of The Displacements and Culpability, an Oprah's Book Club Pick
• “A gripping, funny, gloriously razor-sharp story about grief, extremophiles, bearing the unbearable, getting ambushed by intimacy, and the long-haul projects of survival and repair. Also, the vertigo of being enmeshed in our human dramas as much larger dramas of climate play out around us, and through us, and because of us. Spending time with Herman’s characters felt like hanging out with friends I’d had for decades, as she gave me the beautiful gift of letting me see their quirks and tells and self-betrayals. This wry, tender, utterly immersive novel travels to the end of the world to explore how fully we can't ever leave ourselves behind. I was under its spell till the very last page.”
  Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of Splinters
• “Though it takes place against a backdrop of planetary climate disaster, The Outposters is a book interested in human-sized matters: grief, sobriety, and the way we care for each other. With lucid, wry, and confident prose, Herman illuminates the polar winter darkness of the Outpost—a wellness retreat for the ultra-wealthy at the edge of the Antarctic—and asks what remains when we try to leave the world behind. At once meditative, humorous, and moving.”
  Tom Lin, author of Babylon, South Dakota and The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
• "The Outposters is a stunning debut: richly peopled, addictively plotted, and distinctively placed. The novel is a profound psychic adventure into the vast inner realms of grief, suffering, and our profound capacity for recovery, set against the backdrop of an absurd eco-tourism scheme. Herman is a funny, wry, and uncommonly confident writer, fiercely rejecting end-times nihilism and instead dramatizing ongoingness, vitality, grace, and love in all its wild shapes.”
  Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Yellow Pine and I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness