A nonfiction work that follows the mystery of the Franklin expedition disaster, walking the Arctic while considering exploration history and human limits. Archival inquiry and physical travel overlap, reviving a past expedition as a present question.

It searches for the vanished expedition’s traces in Arctic landscapes and records.

Starting with the unrecognized state of Somaliland and moving through Puntland and southern Somalia, this nonfiction work explores the reality of statehood and order through local voices. It loosens media images of a dangerous region through humor and close observation.

It reconsiders what a state is from the ground around Somalia.