Here’s something a bit different. A Finnish novel based on historical research into a largely failed mid-18th century quest to chart a route from Asia to North America at the behest of Tsarina of Russia. The expedition was led by Vitus Bering, whose name lives on in the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea. Onboard with the crew was the German-born Georg Steller, a naturalist sent to record new species, as well as to act as ship’s physician. Many will associate his name with the impressive Steller’s Sea-eagle and Steller’s Eider, the latter a rare vagrant to our shores. Steller did not officially describe these species; however, he did record the even rarer Steller’s Sea Cow, which tragically became extinct just 27 years after its discovery. This novel is centred on the story of the ill-fated expedition and the demise of both Steller himself and the last population of this enormous relation of the manatees of warmer tropical waters.

The novel is wonderfully engrossing and graphically describes the harsh conditions that the members of the expedition endured when their ship wrecked off a small island near Russia’s remote Kamchatka peninsula. Steller’s determination to collect and record the wildlife of the region despite all the hardships was eye-opening and makes my treks in the British wind and rain seem pretty pathetic in comparison. But what, for me, makes the book stand out is the way Turpeinen weaves the story of the extinction of the sea cow and the subsequent search for complete skeletons to display in museums around the world with changing attitudes to extinction and, indeed, rarity over almost two and a half centuries. This is told through the stories of a few pioneering naturalists and conservators, including some inspirational women, whose careers have predicably been largely ignored.