num_pages: 260
description: An extraordinary true story about one mans attempt to salve the wounds of war and save his own soul through an audacious adventure. In the 1930s as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Mount Everest a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceives his own crazy beautiful plan: he will fly a plane from England to Everest crash-land on its lower slopes then become the first person to reach its summitall utterly alone. Wilson doesnt know how to climb. He barely knows how to fly. But he has the right plane the right equipment and a deep yearning to achieve his goal. In 1933 he takes off from London in a Gipsy Moth biplane with his course set for the highest mountain on earth. Wilsons eleven-month journey to Everest is wild: full of twists turns and daring. Eventually in disguise he sneaks into Tibet. His icy ordeal is just beginning. Wilson is one of the Great Wars heroes but also one of its victims. His hometown of Bradford in northern England is ripped apart by the fighting. So is his family. He barely survives the war himself. Wilson returns from the conflict unable to cope with the sadness that engulfs him. He begins a years-long trek around the world burning through marriages and relationships leaving damaged lives in his wake. When he finally returns to England nearly a decade after he first left he finds himself falling in love once morethis time with his best friends wifebefore depression overcomes him again. He emerges from his funk with a crystalline ambition. He wants to be the first man to stand on top of the world. Wilson believes that Everest can redeem him. This is the tale of an adventurer unlike any you have ever encountered: complex driven wry haunted and fully alive. He is a man written out of the history booksdismissed as an eccentric and gossiped about because of rumors of his transvestism. The Moth and the Mountain restores Maurice Wilson to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and tells an unforgettable story about the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
language: English
title: The Moth and the Mountain
publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster