Book (Swedish or French text)

Two ships carrying 135 men depart London’s harbor on May 19, 1845. Among them is fourteen-year-old Thomas Evans from Scotland, who has taken a job aboard HMS Terror. Only after setting sail does he realize the true scale of the venture: he is part of Sir John Franklin’s legendary expedition to discover the Northwest Passage — a fabled northern shortcut from Europe to Asia.

After a brief stop at Disko Bay on Greenland’s west coast, the expedition pushes toward the Arctic waters north of Canada. Then the trail goes cold. For the next 170 years, researchers and scientists struggle to piece together the fate of the vanished crew. Slowly, a grim story emerges — of lead poisoning, starvation, cold, and ultimately, cannibalism. In the winter of 2014, one of the ships is finally found off King William Island, resting nine meters below the surface. The effort to recover the vessel has only just begun.

Det är inte meningen att man ska vara här / On n'avait rien à faire ici is a graphic novel inspired by the true events of the Franklin Expedition — a haunting tale of ambition, endurance, and humanity pushed past its breaking point.

Thomas Olsson (born 1979) is a Swedish comics artist and publisher, known for the humor series Rogert. He made his debut in 2007 and published Församlingen in 2013, a graphic novel about his upbringing in a free-church community. In 2015, he released Det är inte meningen att man ska vara här, his acclaimed retelling of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage.