Limits of the Known
Description
“If you’ve run out of Saint-Exupéry and miss the eloquent power of his work, then you are ready to read David Roberts.” —Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why
David Roberts has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to exploration and extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure. What compelled Eric Shipton to return, five times, to the ridges of Mt. Everest, plotting the mountain’s most treacherous territory years before Hillary and Tenzing’s famous ascent? What drove Bill Stone to dive 3,000 feet underground into North America’s deepest cave? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end? In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with new urgency and “penetrating self-analysis” (Booklist).
Praise for Limits of the Known
Even the familiar tales in this book are gripping.… Uplifting.
— Wall Street Journal
A moving narrative that speaks to the glories of the human spirit and the limitations of the human body.
— Publishers Weekly
Roberts is as [at] home in libraries as he is on summits.… A book for anyone who appreciates good adventure writing.
— Kirkus Reviews
Roberts writes with a journalistic eye, looking at younger versions of himself as though they were people to be understood. In the end, his book is about rediscovering himself, even as he faces a frightening reminder of his own mortality. A unique combination of penetrating self-analysis and armchair travel.
— Booklist