The youngest Briton ever to reach the summit of Everest and return safely tells his story. Replete with graphic details of life at 20,000-plus feet, Grylls's account also shows his spiritual side. An Everest climb yields plenty of downtime for meditation, and the young trekker mixes hiking anecdotes and scripture. Whether a farmer's son would speak in Julian Rhind-Tutt's upperclass diction is questionable, but the narration is clear, well-paced, and sincere. It's easy to believe that the speaker is tired, homesick, thrilled, frightened, and reverential by turns. There are plenty of brushes with death, well-foreshadowed by author and reader, but we know from the beginning that he survives. In this case, it's the journey, not the arrival, that counts. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine