Iceman Awakens

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Iceman Awakens By Sharon Krasny

Due to my archaeology background, books that deal with ancient historical figures are my guilty reads. From populist authors like Conn Iggulden to more literary writers like Caroline Alexander, I love how they make history's recorded greats real people, flaws and all. So, when I read that author Sharon Krasny wrote about Ötzi, also called the Iceman, the concept hooked me, and I moved it up my TBR. In 1991, two German tourists hiking on a thawing glacier high in the Alps stumbled across a body they mistook for a deceased mountaineer. Local police dug up the remains and carted off the ancient tools found. Only when an archaeologist examined the tools did they fully realize that this well-preserved mummified man was over 5,000 years old. Scientists conducted numerous tests on the body and clothing, and they were able to trace the Iceman's suspected origin and horrific demise. It certainly captured my imagination but clearly consumed author Sharon Krasny's.

She writes the Iceman as a young man but with the growing wisdom of an elder within a European tribe 5,000 years ago. A rhythmic cadence to her writing ebbs and flows as she takes the Iceman from his safe village in a welcoming fertile valley to his ultimate demise on a wind-swept, freezing, barren glacier. Written in an autobiographical, historical fiction style, we know the outcome. Yet, while we know of the murdered Iceman, we do not know who killed him, a crime unsolved for millennia, and while we know where he died, we don't know what brought him there. The author imaginatively solves these mysteries by infusing the Iceman she renamed Gaspare with the passions, curiosity, and foibles we can relate to.