The Beckoning Silence

Description

Joe Simpson has experienced a life filled with adventure, but marred by death. He has endured the painful attrition of climbing friends in accidents, which call into question the perilously exhilarating activity to which he has devoted his whole life. Probability is inexorably closing in. The tragic loss of a close friend forces a momentous decision on him - it is time to turn his back on the mountains that he has loved. Never more alive than when most at risk, he has come to see a last climb on the hooded, mile-high North face of the Eiger as the cathartic finale to his climbing career.

Joe Simpson is the author of several bestselling books, of which the first,Touching the Void, won both the NCR award and the Boardman Tasker Award. His later books are This Game of Ghosts - the sequel to Touching the Void - Storms of Silence, Dark Shadows Falling, The Beckoning Silence and one previous novel, The Water People.

Grippingly told...there is no question Simpson is a brilliant adventure writer. There are passages that had my heart racing * Observer * Eloquent, spine-chilling stuff * SUNDAY TIMES * No one conjures the thrill of altitude better than Simpson...A hugely enjoyable book...As far as mountaineering literature goes this is about as good as it gets * Sara Wheeler, Spectator * An engrossing read. Nobody evokes the physical and psychological realities of climbing better...a powerfully written book...as vivid as anything Simpson has yet produced * Sunday Telegraph * Heart-stopping stuff...This is not a book for the fainthearted and perhaps should come with a government health warning...a book that will have your fingers clutching imaginary rocks and palms sweating over every page * Scotsman *