31
Dec
Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton Random House Press; 368 pp; $15.76 If you’re a big fan of polar exploration and its pantheon of brave leaders –– Shackleton, Ross, Scott, Peary and Franklin –– you probably think you’ve read everything there is to know about these treacherous expeditions to unmapped regions. But you’d be wrong, because until now the story of the ill-fated Antarctic Belgica expedition has never been published in the English language. This extraordinary story of man versus nature was first inspired by a casual reference to the expedition in a 2015 magazine article…