Awards

• Short-listed for PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing 2019

Overview

A celebrated mountaineer and author searches for meaning in great adventures and explorations, past and present. David Roberts, ""veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures"" (Washington Post), 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 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. In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with sharp new urgency. He explores his own lifelong commitment to adventuring, as well as the cultural contributions of explorers throughout history: What specific forms of courage and commitment did it take for Fridtjof Nansen to survive an eighteen-month journey from a record ""farthest north"" with no supplies and a single rifle during his polar expedition of 1893–96? 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? What motivates the explorers we most admire, who are willing to embark on perilous journeys and push the limits of the human body? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end?

Full Product Details

9780393356595

Table of Contents

Reviews

What will almost certainly be the last of Roberts's many books is powerful and honest testimony to a life rich in both action and self-examination. -- Times Literary Supplement Limits of the Known takes the reader on magnificent journeys with some of the greatest explorers of their generations. The book is meticulously researched and skilfully written. -- Climber ... his tales are thoughtful and insightful... A thoroughly enjoyable and readable book which manages to provide food for thought as well as a healthy dose of vicarious adrenalin. -- The Scottish Mountaineer This encapsulating narrative pinpoints human spirit and the limitations of the human body in the world of thrilling adventure. -- Adventure Travel [G]ripping ... uplifting. -- The Wall Street Journal

Limits of the Known takes the reader on magnificent journeys with some of the greatest explorers of their generations. The book is meticulously researched and skilfully written. -- Climber ... his tales are thoughtful and insightful... A thoroughly enjoyable and readable book which manages to provide food for thought as well as a healthy dose of vicarious adrenalin. -- The Scottish Mountaineer This encapsulating narrative pinpoints human spirit and the limitations of the human body in the world of thrilling adventure. -- Adventure Travel [G]ripping ... uplifting. -- The Wall Street Journal

[Roberts'] engrossing writing and gripping adventure stories will appeal to outdoors and history enthusiasts. -- Library Journal 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 Roberts conveys the exhilaration and vitality of adventuring as well as the agony and anger of a cancer diagnosis with equal aplomb, making for a moving narrative that speaks to the glories of the human spirit and the limitations of the human body. -- Publishers Weekly Roberts is at home in libraries as he is on summits...A book for anyone who appreciates good adventure writing. -- Kirkus Reviews A beautiful treatise on the extremes humans will go to in order better to understand ourselves and the world we live in for such a brief time. -- Shelf Awareness [G]ripping ... uplifting. -- Wall Street Journal A beautiful contribution by legendary climber/author David Roberts. ... [C]ompelling and honest. -- Climbing If you've run out of Saint-Exupery and miss the eloquent power of his work, then you are ready to read David Roberts. -- Laurence Gonzales

""[G]ripping ... uplifting."" -- The Wall Street Journal ""This encapsulating narrative pinpoints human spirit and the limitations of the human body in the world of thrilling adventure."" -- Adventure Travel ""... his tales are thoughtful and insightful... A thoroughly enjoyable and readable book which manages to provide food for thought as well as a healthy dose of vicarious adrenalin."" -- The Scottish Mountaineer ""Limits of the Known takes the reader on magnificent journeys with some of the greatest explorers of their generations. The book is meticulously researched and skilfully written."" -- Climber ""What will almost certainly be the last of Roberts's many books is powerful and honest testimony to a life rich in both action and self-examination."" -- Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

David Roberts (1943–2021) was the author of thirty books on mountaineering, exploration, and anthropology. His books have won the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature and the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Competition.

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