A fascinating book detailing the natural extremities of mountain climbing, weather, etc and how one man loses his love amidst horrific weather and is stuck for years, waiting for her in a half life.

A beautiful novel, superbly written. That sums up my feelings about this book written by the successful author of “Touching the Void.”

The plot is a simple one. Young Patrick is stranded on a high mountain in the midst of a winter storm. His wife, Cassie, is dead. That much we know from the start. She has slipped from his hand and plunged in to a deep cavernous glacier. His grief and struggle to survive is so compelling, the reader is on that mountain ridge with him….fighting the storm and attempting to keep warm and stay alive.

In the second half of the book, we meet up with Patrick twenty five years later, where he is voluntary warden based at the hut he and his wife visited in the days before their fateful climb all those years ago. It has become a place where fellow climbers can find refuge, rest up, eat and drink. More than that, it is a where Patrick attempts to save the lives of climbers who have got into difficulty. Where he may succeed instead of failing them……the way he feels about his wife and her untimely end.

It is the seemingly effortless prose which makes this novel so wonderful. The style is unusual for a modern piece of fiction. So descriptive and not a single word is wasted. Ultimately it is a story of loss and grief and eventual redemption. It illustrates Joe Simpson’s passion and wealth of knowledge of mountaineering and it’s many dangers.

I loved it.

This book was made available to me for an honest review. ( )