In his late thirties, celebrated essayist, journalist, and author Bill McKibben—never much of an athlete—decided the time had come for him to really test his body. Cross-country skiing his challenge of choice, he lived the fantasy of many amateur athletes and trained—with the help of a coach-guru—nearly full-time, putting in hours and miles typical of an Olympic hopeful. For one vigorous year, which would culminate in a series of grueling, long-distance races, McKibben experienced his body’s rhythms and possibilities as never before.
But the year also brought tragedy to McKibben and his family as his father developed a life-threatening illness. Forcing a deeper exploration of both body and spirit, the arrival of this illness transforms McKibben’s action-packed memoir into a moving account of two men coming to terms with the limits of flesh.
The author of such impassioned and groundbreaking books as The End of Nature and The Age of Missing Information, Bill McKibben is renowned as an original thinker. Here, writing with his trademark honesty and insight, he once again creates a provocative and unconventional book, a fascinating portrait of a man in midlife pushing his body and soul to the breaking point—and learning some unexpected truths along the way.
“Bill McKibben has written a wry, wise, thought provoking book about what it takes—and what it means—to endure for the long haul. It’s an extended meditation on athleticism, primarily, but it’s also a wonderful paean to winter, and dying with dignity, and—perhaps above all—leading the examined life.”
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“A wonderful book—funny, humane, inspiring. Bill McKibben has never been better.”
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“In the beginning I figured Bill McKibben had something important to tell me about cross-country skiing—and he did. But as I read on I was learning a lot about writing—the sentences purr. And when I finished I understood that McKibben had known all the time I would learn most from him about living; that’s the heart of the matter. Whether sloshing through a snow melt, or panting toward his VO2 Max, or manning the winch to hoist his dying father, he makes you thirst for the adrenaline of wisdom that is the reward of living fully in the here and now.”
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