Product Description

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, is an account of the ascent of the 21,000ft Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes. Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had achieved the summit before the first disaster struck. What happened and how they dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted is the subject of this book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3245 in Books
• Brand: Cordee Books
• Published on: 1998-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• Paperback

Review
'A truly astonishing account of suffering and fortitude...the narrative acquires an irresistible force, carrying all before it' Peter Gillman, Sunday Times 'A quite extraordinary and moving book...touches the Great Questions in an understated yet utterly compelling way' David Rose, Guardian 'An outstanding literary achievement' Jim Perrin, Independent 'A brilliant, vivid, gripping, heart-stopping account of their terrifying adventure...superbly written' Graham Lord, Sunday Express

About the Author
Joe Simpson won the Boardman Tasker Award and the prestigious NCR Award for his first book Touching the Void, which received universal applause and was published in thirteen languages. Touching the Void was Joe's fourth book. Earlier titles include The Water People and This Game of Ghosts.

Customer Reviews

The remarkable true story of a mountaineering accident
In 1985 two English climbers set out to climb the remote western face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. The face had repulsed several previous attempts, and despite the odds the two experienced Alpinists made the summit. It was during the descent that the author fell down a small ice cliff and broke his leg. The few paragraphs describing what happens when his climbing partner reaches him, and the descriptions of what is going through their minds and what is said and what is not said is perhaps one of the most tense things in the book. What follows is perhaps one of the most outstanding and dramatic accounts of the human will to survive ever written. Simpson wrote the book whilst recovering from his injuries and has admitted that he found reliving the ordeal painfull. Consequently he wrote the book in a very succinct fashion; he does not use ten words if he can use one, and he always chooses the words well. This book is real edge of the seat stuff, and I read it through in one night, dosed up on coffee, and turned up at work the next day babbling about the book. My advice is don't start reading it if you have work the next day. I have spoken to several other people who have read it and without exception they have found it memorable. A truly remarkable book, one you will remember for a long time. Now move the mouse to the order button !

An amazing story told well.
Sometime in the early 90s I read a brief article that described the awful decision that was forced on Simon Yates one night on a mountain in the Peruvian Andes. The image of that situation stayed with me although I had long forgotten the names of those involved and the title of the book that chronicled their ill-fated climb. Eventually I got around to searching the 'Mountaineering' section of a bookstore and found the book. I have no interest in climbing mountains but from the first page I was held by Joe Simpson's excellent and effective descriptions of their ascent and his subsequent accident. The life or death situation that faced Simon Yates may be the most sensational aspect of this book but there is much more there for the reader. Joe Simpson gives armchair adventurers like myself the ability to taste some of the fear and elation that the real adventurers experience but he does so with humility and humour. Most of us can only imagine how it feels to climb a mountain but we can all empathise with his reluctance to get out of his warm sleeping bag to make the first cup of tea of the day. Like most other readers I couldn't put this book down and I read it from cover to cover in one sitting.

Menace on the Mountain
This book is addictive. You just can't leave it alone once you start it.

Although I have no head for heights, Mountains & those who pit themselves against such awesome and spectacular obstacles hold a deep fascination for me.

When Joe Simpson fell and injured himself, he was a dead man.
In such an extreme environment as the Peruvian Andes, if you can't help yourself you are doomed. Yet Joe's partner, Simon Yates, took the first of some very courageous decisions & set about extricating himself & Joe from a very precarious situation...

Such determination & the sheer guts displayed by these two men in the face of such overwhelming difficulties makes your heart soar, when set against the normal world in which most of us live.

If Gallantry, Humanity, determination to survive against and defeat an implacable foe, the indomitability of the human spirit despite the frailty of it's physical shell are the qualities that inspire you then read this and be uplifted.

Joe Simpson & Simon Yates faced their demons together and alone, fought them and defeated them. I wish them well.