Book details
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
2012 · Vintage
About the book
At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed faced the collapse of her world following her mother’s sudden death from cancer and the subsequent disintegration of her marriage. With no previous hiking experience and a heavy backpack she named Monster, she set out to walk eleven hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone. The narrative tracks her physical progress from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to the Bridge of the Gods. Along the way, she confronts rattlesnakes, extreme heat, record snowfalls, and the loss of her boots, while mentally processing her grief and past heroin use.
Readers of outdoor memoirs and personal histories find here a blunt catalog of physical pain and psychological recovery. The text provides a realistic look at the logistics of long-distance trekking and the isolation of the wilderness. Those who finish the book understand how solitary physical endurance serves as a mechanism for rebuilding a shattered identity. It offers a candid perspective on mourning and the necessity of self-reliance when traditional support systems fail.
Details
- Published
- 2012
- Publisher
- Vintage
- ISBN
- 9780307962812
- Language
- EN