It is rare to find a story that mingles beauty and tragedy together so well. Iida Turpeinen, a Finnish author, takes readers on a 300-year trek to the coldest places on Earth to witness the hardships, triumphs, and tragedies of the human and animal species. “Beasts of the Sea” is a historical fiction novel centered around the discovery, study, and loss of the hydrodamalis gigas, or more commonly known as Steller’s sea cow.
The book begins with the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who is part of the Great Northern Expedition led by Capt. Vitus Bering and commissioned by Russian Czar Peter the Great. The reader is aboard the St. Peter as it sails between Siberia and Alaska (which becomes known as the Bering Sea), and wrecks along the frigid uncharted land.
