With the Inuit having a different set of values to Europeans, this advice was rarely heeded and Freuchen messed about quite a bit, eventually marrying an Inuit woman, Navarana.
The story of their marriage (Freuchen’s first of three) is a fascinating one involving children, long separations and a way of conducting a relationship quite alien to many other cultures.
Freuchen’s story is one of skills learned through hard experience and restlessness that saw him teaming up with his friend and business partner Knud Rasmussen on further expeditions to explore and map Greenland.
The pace of the author’s storytelling lends an edge-of-your-seat experience. The reader is drawn into mortal danger many times as Freuchen fearlessly dives headlong out of Greenland and into two world wars, in which he will play a fascinating part.
Freuchen was, among other things, a novelist who ended up in Hollywood during its ‘golden age’, consulting on films, writing scripts, living in the same building as Marilyn Monroe and nearly ruining Jean Harlow’s career.
It’s the stuff of wild dreams - incredible that one man lived it all. I found myself very attached to Peter Freuchen, his life and his family, invested in every step of his exciting life.
Wanderlust details a larger-than-life man, some of his deeds glorious, some less so. The author presents you with a story of a life, warts and all, lived according to Freuchen’s own terms and moral code. It’s intriguing, inspiring and beautifully told.
