A real treat for fans of exploration, perfect for reading on a comfy couch or under a starry sky.

While it's challenging to fit so many stories and characters into one book, I'm impressed with the execution. Despite the very short chapters, each one offers a snapshot of a fascinating life. You'll find yourself wanting to read the next one and the next. You will find kidnappings, active volcanoes, wild animals, psychedelics, and submersibles, as well as a whole other category of challenges, such as paperwork, delayed flights, eating instant noodles for a month, and sleeping in a tent full of mating, buzzing flies. After all, as the author writes,

„The reality is that most expeditions aren’t gripping tales of life and death. (If that were the case, The Explorers Club would be doing something very, very wrong.) And the day-to-day grind of fieldwork is something that usually gets overlooked, even if it’s the backbone of exploration”.
Somehow, he made these mundane stories as fascinating as extreme adventures. This was partly thanks to his decision to give voice to the explorers themselves, as seen in this quote:

“Ulla [Lohmann] notes that for fellow members of The Explorers Club, it’s totally normal to enjoy a muddy and freezing expedition for a month, with no showers or hot food. “We’re happy being cold and miserable,” she says. Most of humanity, however, is not wired that way”.

The eponymous "edge" can have many meanings, and the "letters" can take different forms. They can be classic correspondence, emails, voice messages, or field notes made on an iPhone app – like in the chapter about environmental filmmaker Mariah Wilson:

“The BATÉKÉ PLATEAU, REPUBLIC OF CONGO—2017
Here we go again.
A) We came all this way to see … pigeons eating shit. I could have seen that in New York. This is all we filmed today on the clearings. Ugh.
B) To be fair, they are eating elephant shit. So that’s a bit different. Also a hopeful sign for elephants being nearby.…”

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea ;-) Highly recommended!

Thanks to the publisher, Crown, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Enjoyable stories from the explorers club. Unknown takes you don't hear often. This is going to take you all over the world to look at so many different things. My favorite is the indigenous woman's facial tattoos.