Then We Sailed North

Sohvi Kangasluoma

Original title: Sitten purjehdimme pohjoiseen

Author: Sohvi Kangasluoma

Published: 2026

Publisher: Atena

Genre: Narrative Nonfiction

Pages: 350

Reading material:

English sample

Finnish edition

An extraordinary sailing journey across seas that appear as nothing but ice on the map.

Sohvi and Juho live aboard their sailboat. The sea is their home, and it is also the heart of the entire planet.

This captivating work of narrative nonfiction portrays the couple’s unique way of life, sailing via Alaska to the Northwest Passage and wintering frozen into the ice in Greenland. Along the way, they encounter inhabitants of land and sea and witness firsthand the impacts of climate change in the North.

Grounded in personal experience and solid research, the story reveals how the environmental crisis affects life in the Arctic seas and challenges our understanding of the North. The adventure offers an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between humans and the sea, and on the nature of love amid the ice.

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Rights sold:
FINLAND: Atena (orig.)

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About author

Sohvi Kangasluoma

Sohvi Kangasluoma works as a postdoctoral researcher in international politics, focusing on environmental issues in the Arctic region. She has published academic articles and book chapters on the agency of ice along northern sea routes, ocean governance, and the Arctic fossil economy.

Then We Sailed North: Notes from the Arctic Seas is Kangasluoma’s first nonfiction book. The years spent on northern seas have taught her to listen to and read the sea and the ice in a particular way. Encounters with both the inhabitants of the sea and the land have profoundly shaped Kangasluoma’s way of seeing the world.

Sohvi Kangasluoma lives on her sailboat with her partner, Juho—usually in northern waters—or at a cabin in Northern Finland, enjoying snow and cold.


Photo credit: Mikko-Pekka Karlin

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Bibliography


2026, Narrative Nonfiction

Sohvi Kangasluoma

Then We Sailed North


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