The theme of man vs. nature has inspired so many great books that it's no wonder British author Jonathan Raban would want to write himself into one. A Seattle resident since 1990, Raban considers the Inside Passage from Puget Sound up into Alaska the last American frontier, where the coast is populated by isolated and not always friendly enclaves of fishermen, adventurers, and lost souls only tenuously holding on to familiar standards of civilization. The stretch of sea is a place of solitude where success and survival have traditionally been predicated as much upon chance as skill, but Raban can't resist the pull of adventure or the prospect of stoic reflection. Leaving behind his wife and daughter, he sets out for a solo voyage from Seattle to Juneau with a stack of notebooks and shelves of books to keep him company and occupy his mind. Raban packs his travelogue with historical notes detailing past explorations, and frequently digresses to discuss the finer points of maritime literature: the works of Conrad (Typhoon), Melville (Moby Dick), and the like are characters as much as the eccentric people he encounters. But it's clear from the tone of his prose that Raban's trip is about more than getting from point A to point B: About halfway through his long book, thoughts begins to shift from what's around him to what's within him, ranging from his relationship with his deceased father to his current family. By the time Raban reaches Juneau, he's reached more profound destinations.