This was a bit of a departure for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. More than just a climbing memoir, this gives an insight into the hardships, failures and obsessions of elite climbers. Very readable indeed.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance ARC of this book

I have limited experience of climbing myself, though know a few keen participants of the sport who have shared their enthusiasm and knowledge with me. I was therefore interested in this memoir from the moment I heard of it and was intrigued to discover what it meant to become not just a professional climber, but the best in your field.

Despite this, I am alway wary of autobiographies. The self-reflective nature of memoirs, if done badly, can result in self-indulgent analysis of success, with sometimes lazily written and poorly structured episodes strung together to bulk up the piece. This wasn't the case here.

For starters, the work was well written throughout, with beautiful descriptions of both the multitudinous climbing locations across the globe and the sheer effort and training required to scale them. Tommy Caldwell shows great respect for the natural phenomena he chooses to ascent. This is not just a story about him, but the planet on which we live. This is what makes it such a powerful and engaging read. Tommy, and the other climbers in the close knit community, are forced to find ways to adapt themselves to the mountains they climb, and failure in the face of the power of nature is as much a part of this story as the successes. Tommy's decades of exploring the natural world have clearly humbled him, and this humility seeps through the pages of this book.

This book is more than just a memoir. It is a reflection on the power of the human mind, relationships and, first and foremost, our planet. It is Tommy Caldwell's appreciation of all three that makes this book such a delight, and one that will stay with me for a long time.