In 1833, virtually bankrupt and labelled a fraud, Audubon continued his audacious mission to chronicle every bird in North America with a trip by sail along the treacherous passage between Newfoundland and Labrador.

In a life so well-documented, these next months form a rare gap. It is as if the dark cloud and fog Audubon sails into transcends mere weather, and becomes a state of mind.

The voyage makes an enthralling read, from the eccentric frontiersman’s tantrums and his dangerous searches for new species, to his fateful encounter with Royal Navy Captain Henry Bayfield who is charting the passage to make it safe for future travel.

Govier recreates the painstaking work Audubon did in observing, dissecting, and painting his winged treasures. His painted birds were really wild creatures, not the static, illustrative scientific drawings that existed until his time.

But Audubon, who was 48 when he made the trip, also had a larger vision, one involving destruction and extinction. Where will I go to visit nature undisturbed? he wonders, after stumbling upon unscrupulous eggers who pillage the birds nesting grounds. He was a visionary, and understood that the harvesting—and indeed the charting of the passage—would lead to destruction.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year