Toujours plus loin. Toujours plus au nord. Toujours plus seul. Inspiré par ses lectures de Tolstoï et de Thoreau, Christopher McCandless a tout sacrifié à son idéal de pureté et de nature. En 1990, une fois son diplôme universitaire en poche, il offre ses économies à une association caritative et part, sans un adieu, vers son destin. Celui-ci s'achèvera tragiquement au coeur des forêts de l'Alaska... Jon Krakauer évoque aussi à travers cette échappée belle ceux qui, un jour, ont cherché à quitter la civilisation et à dépasser leurs limites. Magistralement porté à l'écran par Sean Penn, lnto the Wild s'inscrit dans la grande tradition du road-movie tragique et lumineux, une histoire aux échos universels.
Travels to a remote country in search of a strange beast and, in the course of his travels, describes author's encounters with the people whose stories delay him on the road. This book is a quest or a Wonder Voyage. It is about wandering and exile.
Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.
It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else.
Ignoring such dangers - and yet curiously obsessed by them - Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn't get much better than this...
In 1993, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home.
INTRODUCED BY ADAM WEYMOUTH, award-winning author of The Kings of Yukon ''A wonderful book -- and a highly original contribution to the literature of travel'' PAUL THEROUX ''The Mississippi. Mighty, muddy, dangerous, rebellious and yet a strong, fathering kind of river. The river captured my imagination when I was young and has never let go.'' Mississippi Solo tells the story of one man''s voyage by canoe down the Mississippi River from its source in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico - a longtime dream, and a journey of over 2,000 miles through the heart of America. Paddling into the Southern states - going from ''where there ain''t no black folks to where they still don''t like us much'' - Eddy is confronted by the legacy of slavery and modern racism, including an incident with a pair of shotgun-toting bigots. There are also the dangers of passing barges, wild dogs roaming the wooded shore, and navigating a waterway that grows vaster, and more hazardous, every day. But Eddy also encounters immense human kindness, friendship and hospitality, as well as coming to know the majestic power - and the awesome dangers - of the river itself. Mississippi Solo is an unforgettable American adventure.
Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna.
B>Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is the true story of a 24-hour period on Everest, when members of three separate expeditions were caught in a storm and faced a battle against hurricane-force winds, exposure, and the effects of altitude, which ended in the worst single-season death toll in the peak's history./b> In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day, eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.b>One of the inspirations for the major motion picture Everest, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Keira Knightley./b>
''Stunningly written'' Sunday Times ''Richly absorbing'' Guardian ''Hooks you in from the start'' Times ''Masterful'' Independent ''Hugely compelling'' Observer ''Wonderful'' Financial Times Siberia''s story is traditionally one of exiles, bitter cold and suffering. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos created during the boom years of the nineteenth century. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is remarkable. That stately instruments might still be capable of making music in such a hostile landscape is nothing less than a miracle. Fusing history, nature writing and travelogue, The Lost Pianos of Siberia is a story about a piano hunt - a quixotic journey through two centuries of Russian history and eight time zones stretching across an eleventh of the world''s land surface. It reveals not only an unexpected musical legacy, but profound humanity in the last place on earth you might expect to find it.
Contains three books - "My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives" and "The Garden of the Gods". Offering portraits of the author's family and their many unusual hangers-on, this work also captures the beginnings of his lifelong love of animals.
In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their house and received a terminal diagnosis that took away their future together. With nowhere to call home, they instead embarked on a journey: to walk the South West Coast Path, a 630-mile sea-swept trail from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. This ancient, wind-battered landscape lays them bare, stripping away every comfort they have ever known. With almost no money for food orshelter, carrying the essentials for survival on their backs, they wild camp on beaches and clifftops. Until slowly, with every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, the walk sets them on a road of discovery. They don't know how far they will travel, but unexpectedly, they find themselves on a path to freedom. The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story about coming to terms with grief and the healing power of nature. Ultimately, it is a book about home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected of ways.
Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly twodecade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world en France.From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he came to fall in love withyes'>#8212;and even understandyes'>#8212;this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city.When did he realize he had morphed into un vrai parisien? It might have been when he found himself considering a purchase of men's dress socks with cartoon characters on them. Or perhaps the time he went to a bank with 135 euros in hand to make a 134euro payment, was told the bank had no change that day, and thought it was completely normal. Or when he found himself dressing up to take out the garbage because he had come to accept that in Paris appearances and image mean everything. The more than fifty original recipes, for dishes both savory and sweet, such as Pork Loin with Brown Sugaryes'>#8211;Bourbon Glaze, Braised Turkey in Beaujolais Nouveau wih Prunes, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Cake, ChocolateCoconut Marshmallows, Chocolate Spice Bread, LemonGlazed Madeleines, and Mochayes'>#8211;Cryes'>#232;me Frayes'>#238;che Cake, will have readers running to the kitchen once they stop laughing. The Sweet Life in Paris is a deliciously funny, offbeat, and irreverent look at the city of lights, cheese, chocolate, and other confections.
''My favourite book about the wilderness'' Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild In this shimmering masterpiece of American nature writing, Edward Abbey ventures alone into the canyonlands of Moab, Utah, to work as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service. Living out of a trailer, Abbey captures in rapt, poetic prose the landscape of the desert; a world of terracotta earth, empty skies, arching rock formations, cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine and sand sage. His summers become spirit quests, taking him in search of wild horses and Ancient Puebloan petroglyphs, up mountains and across tribal lands, and down the Glen Canyon by river. He experiences both sides of his new home; its incredible beauty and its promise of liberation, but also its isolating, cruel side, at one point discovering a dead tourist at an isolated area of the Grand Canyon. In his own irascible style, Abbey uses his time in the desert to meditate on the tension between nature and civilisation, and outlines a personal philosophy that would come to heavily influence the environmentalist movement. Now published in a special edition to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, this classic seems remarkably prescient, and has lost none of its power.
''An inspirational study in leadership and a powerful testament to the human spirit at its very best.'' - Mail on Sunday ''If you''re going to get one book this year get Beyond Possible .'' - Ant Middleton ''The energy of the book gives it pace and you whip through, rather as Purja nips up verticals... Whether or not you are a lover of the mountains, you will marvel at his tenacity, his fearlessness. No one can fail to be inspired by what he achieved.'' - The Times ''Not only does Nims have exceptional physical stamina, he''s also a leader with great skills in financial management and logistics.'' - Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen highest mountains in the world ''The magnitude of his achievement is astonishing.'' Soldier Magazine ''A Living Legend.'' Trail Magazine *** In Beyond Possible Nimdai Purja tells the story of his life before his recent epic achievement of leading the team that scaled K2 in winter. He reveals how leadership, a willingness to learn, integrity and collaboration are essential qualities behind the world''s greatest mountaineering feats. Nimsdai is the first man ever to summit all 8000m ''Death Zone'' peaks in less than 7 months, and this book reveals the man behind the climbs - how his early life in Nepal and Special Forces training made him the person to go beyond possible...
Standing on a train as it rushes past fields of cactus; witnessing his first bullfight in Mexico, high on opium; meditating in Tangiers; or falling in love with Montmartre - Kerouac's travels reveal both the endless diversity of human life and his own particular philosophy of self-fulfillment.
''A remarkable story beautifully told... Among such classics as Goodall''s In the Shadow of Man and Fossey''s Gorillas in the Mist '' Chicago Tribune Carrying little more than a change of clothes and a pair of binoculars, two young Americans, Mark and Delia Owens, caught a plane to Africa, bought a thirdhand Land Rover, and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert. There they lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people, and no source of water for thousands of square miles. In this vast wilderness the Owenses began their zoology research, working along animals that had never before been exposed to humans. An international bestseller on original release, Cry of the Kalahari is the story of the Owenses''s life with lions, brown hyenas, jackals, giraffes, and the many other creatures they came to know. It is also a gripping account of how they survived the dangers of living in one of the last and largest pristine areas on Earth.
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SALT PATH AND THE WILD SILENCEbr>br>Pre-order the latest book from global bestselling author Raynor Winn, and follow her journey across Great Britain exploring our relationship to the land, and to each otherbr>_________________br>br>We''re a long way from ''nearly there'', the path winds higher and higher, until it almost disappears. . . br>br>As the fracture lines between nations grow ever wider, how do we relate to each other, to the land on which we live and the world around us? br>br>Are we united enough to see protection of the natural environment as a priority? br>br>These are the questions Raynor asks herself as she embarks on her most ambitious walk to date with her husband Moth - from the dramatic beauty of the Cape Wrath Trail in the north-west corner of Scotland, to the familiar territory of the South-west Coast Path. br>br>Chronicling her journey across Great Britain with trademark luminous, exquisite prose, Raynor maps not only the physical terrain, but also captures the collective consciousness of a country facing an uncertain path ahead. br>_________________>
SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The highly anticipated new book from the internationally bestselling, prize-winning author of Landmarks, The Lost Words and The Old Ways 'You'd be crazy not to read this book' The Sunday Times ' Underland is a magnificent feat of writing, travelling and thinking that feels genuinely frontier pushing, unsettling and exploratory' Evening Standard Discover the hidden worlds beneath our feet... In Underland , Robert Macfarlane takes us on a journey into the worlds beneath our feet. From the ice-blue depths of Greenland's glaciers, to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet's past and future. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, Underland is a work of huge range and power, and a remarkable new chapter in Macfarlane's long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart. 'Marvellous... Neverending curiosity, generosity of spirit, erudition, bravery and clarity... This is a book well worth reading' The Times 'Extraordinary... at once learned and readable, thrilling and beautifully written' Observer 'Attentive, thoughtful, finely honed... I turned the last page with the unusual conviction of having been in the company of a fine writer who is - who must surely be - a good man' Telegraph 'Poetry, science, a healthy sense of the uncanny and a touch of the shamanic are the hallmarks of his writing... This is a journey that tells the story not just of nature but of human nature. And there is noone I would more gladly follow on it' i 'Startling and memorable, charting invisible and vanishing worlds. Macfarlane has made himself Orpheus, the poet who ventures down to the darkest depths and returns - frighteningly alone-to sing of what he has seen' New Statesman
Michael Booth is the author of six books, including the international bestseller, The Almost Nearly Perfect People, winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers award for Book of the Year, and Sushi and Beyond, which won the Guild of Food Writers award.
