A short story by Danish Nobel Prize winner Henrik Pontoppidan about Thorkild Muller, a reclusive, undereducated, and outcast Danish pastor who is reassigned to a parish in Greenland. Muller quickly finds a sense of belonging and fulfillment living with the Inuit, and becomes integrated into their nomadic society. In his old age, however, Muller returns to Denmark and finds himself unexpectedly embroiled in a confrontation with the Danish church. In a lovely and fluid translation by James Massengale, The Polar Bear is a wonderful introduction to the widely unavailable works of a Danish master.