The Gyre
An atmospheric journey into the far northern wilds, The Gyre spins one man’s search for meaning into a spellbinding saga where adventure, folklore, and the Arctic converge. Arkady Afanasyev, a nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox monk, wants to be the northernmost holy man in the world. Equipped only with prayer books, Arkady sets off across the tundra, haunted by regret, a long-lost family, and a chorus of Orthodox saints and Slavic pagan tricksters. Amid this, in the great, turning, harsh natural world, Arkady is brutally and deeply transformed.
The Gyre won the 2025 Electric Book Award and the 2026 IndieReader Discovery Award for historical fiction. The book also was a finalist in IndieReader’s overall fiction category.
Praise for the book:
“Besides being exciting, interesting fiction for thoughtful readers, ‘The Gyre’ shows how independent publishing has come of age… The novel has been reviewed by major publications, all praising Carlson for her energetic exploration of savage cold and spiritual purity.” — Pioneer Press
“A stunning novel that seamlessly combines folklore, metaphysics, and the vulnerabilities of the human condition, making it both effortless and deeply moving to read. Carlson’s prose is mesmerizing and her beautifully crafted narrative, compelling. Exceptional, intense, and powerful, THE GYRE proves impossible to put down.” — IndieReader
“An absolutely astonishing saga, packed at every turn with magic, incomprehensible courage and persistence, and—always—the great, turning, harsh natural world. Fearlessly imagined and capably written, Stacy Carlson has created a searingly unforgettable mythology.”
— Joan Frank, author of Juniper Street: A Novel and Late Work: A Literary Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading
“Mythic journeys, fairy tales of ice and snow, sailors’ vodka-addled and lusty dreams, a monk’s poetic yearnings – The Gyre has it all! As we follow Arkady Afanasyev on his journey into the farthest reaches of the Arctic in search of his teacher and himself, we encounter story upon story strung together, like pearls, showing us how we are connected to the water, the ice, the ground, the light, and each other. The Gyre pulls you in and in and into its profoundly beautiful spiral of a story.”
— Kathryn Nuernberger, author of Held: Essays in Belonging
“Stacy Carlson has written an enthralling story of flawed, fragile humanity and the uncanny redemptive power of nature at its most brutal. The Gyre is a journey through a stark, glittering wilderness, an unforgettable landscape both terrible and holy in equal measure.”
— Lynn Coady, Giller Prize-winning author of Hellgoing
“A gripping novel—both a rip-roaring yarn and a deep inquiry into what makes us human. Like a Caspar David Friedrich painting, Carlson’s The Gyre places the human against the immense backdrop of an unforgiving landscape—here, the high-arctic archipelago of Svalbard—with dazzling results.”
—Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places and Afterlives of the Saints
