This review starts on a somewhat unusual note. Readers will observe that the publication date for this book is as far back as 2011. Volumes selected by the Editor of this journal for review are normally culled from publishers’ catalogues, personal acquaintance, or suggestions from colleagues in the general polar community. But this book was missed and fell through Polar Record's fairly effective, but obviously not infallible, processes. The Editor only became aware of its existence in July 2014 when he saw a copy in the small bookshop attached to the museum in Nanortalik in Greenland situated in the very heartland of the events described in the book. He picked it up and became so absorbed in reading it that he had to rush in order not to be marooned on the departure of his ship. That is not to insinuate that that would have been a terrible fate; Nanortalik is, after all, one of the most agreeable northern communities, the weather looked set fair but. . . . So an apology is due to the readership of Polar Record and especially to the authors because this is simply a superb volume and one that it would have been a matter for shame not to notice.

The genesis of the book was a research project adopted by the Greenland Research Centre of the National Museum essentially on the meeting of immigrating east Greenlanders, ‘who literally stepped out of the mists of prehistory’, with the people of the Europeanised settlements in the colonised west Greenland. The project, while mostly archive based, included interviews with the now living descendants of the immigrant east Greenlanders ‘with the aim of casting light on the relationship between history and memory’ (page 9). Archaeological investigations were also carried out in order to illuminate the prehistory of the present Greenlanders, now known as the Thule culture. But of course the main group of Europeans met by the incomers were the, by then well established, Moravian missionaries and much detail is provided concerning the origin and operations of this very interesting group. There is also note of the Greenlandic objects that were transported back by Moravians to their headquarters at Herrnhut in Saxony.

The book starts with a general introduction to the Cape Farewell area, Nunap Isua, ‘the country's end’, in which the latitude (lower than 60ºN) is noted as is the high level of precipitation. Despite this the climate is resolutely sub-Arctic because the east Greenland current carries much sea ice and many bergs around the cape thus cooling the sea. Also the inland ice reaches to the coast immediately to the north and that cools the land. But even this early in the book the reader is immediately distracted from the text by the quite magnificent illustrations in colour that are generously distributed and flipping over the pages it is clear that the authors have continued this policy throughout. In the first few pages are an excellent coloured map of the area together with a superb coloured photograph of the entrance to Torsukattak, the sound leading towards Nanortalik, and a further one of large amounts of drift ice adjacent to Cape Hoppe with numerous seals resting on the floes. A few pages later one comes, with pleasure, upon a further notable aspect of this book. A very large number of nineteenth century drawings are reproduced, in this case one by Lars Møller, dated 1864, Editor of a Greenlandic newspaper entitled Atuagagdliutit, of the mountains in the Itilleq area.

After the introduction one embarks on the main part of the book. This is divided into nine units. The first is a useful account of the prehistory of the area which relates to the 400 years between the arrival of the first Inuit until the creation of the ‘social institutions’ that emerged immediately before the first European colonisation starting in 1721. The next chapter moves backwards as it were by detailing the European activities in west Greenland, before they moved south. The next two chapters concentrate on the south Greenland situation commenting on the Moravians ‘as the source of disagreement seen from the Danish. . . point of view’ both as regards to the Danish mission and their Trading Company (page 23). The situation in east Greenland is then described followed by a detailed demographic description of the Cape Farewell area including family analysis. Then the core of the book is reached with a consideration of how east Greenland immigrants were integrated into what was in effect west Greenland society and with the Moravian groups centred at what was then called Friedrichsthal. When the Moravians left Greenland in 1900 the congregation was living in ten settlements spread over the whole Cape Farewell area. The total population in that year was some 600 people not all of course were adherents of the denomination. Note is made of the special east Greenlandic characteristics that still differentiate them from the population of the Cape area. The conclusion has two aspects. The first is how attitudes changed among the immigrants from the east coast during the nineteenth century. The second is to use this as a foundation for the study of how history and identity are perceived. The final chapter seems a little out of context since it is a lengthy description of the objects sent home by the Moravians to their rather modest headquarters and which are preserved at Herrnhut at the Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Brüder-Unität but reading it makes one realise the seriousness with which the brethren and their families approached their task.

As noted above the book is liberally, indeed lavishly, illustrated and in addition to a whole series of coloured maps and photographs there are many contemporary photographs of the local people, in both formal and informal poses and of the various equipment that they used in their daily activities. There is a full critical apparatus. In addition it should be noted that the presentation of the book is superb and well up to the exhaustive standards traditionally adopted by this publishing house. The binding is solid and long lasting and the cover has a most attractive photograph that sums up the tough environment in which the events described take place. It seems impossible to find anything to criticise. This is an excellent book and one wholly to be recommended to anyone with interests in the Inuit, in Greenland, the Moravians or, indeed, in missionary studies in general. The authors are to be warmly congratulated.