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Paolo Cognetti

Without Ever Reaching the Summit: A Himalayan Journey Hardcover – 5 Nov. 2020

by Paolo Cognetti (Author)

49 ratings

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An awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on earth, from the author of international bestseller The Eight Mountains.

Paolo Cognetti marked his 40th birthday with a journey he had always wanted to make: to Dolpo, a remote Himalayan region where Nepal meets Tibet. He took with him two friends, a notebook, mules and guides, and a well-worn copy of The Snow Leopard. Written in 1978, Matthiessen's classic was also turning forty, and Cognetti set out to walk in the footsteps of the great adventurer.

Without Ever Reaching the Summit combines travel journal, secular pilgrimage, literary homage and sublime mountain writing in a short book for readers of Macfarlane, Rebanks and Cognetti's own bestseller, The Eight Mountains. An investigation into the author's physical limits, an ancient mountain culture, and the magnificence of nature, it is an awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on earth.

'A breath of fresh air for mountain-lovers currently in confinement...The sparse, graceful prose...reflects the barren landscape and the author's joy in paring back the distractions of modern life' Financial Times, Best Books of 2020

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvill Secker
Publication date

5 Nov. 2020
Dimensions

13.8 x 2 x 20.4 cm
ISBN-10

178730227X
ISBN-13

978-1787302273
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Product details

Publisher : Harvill Secker; 1st edition (5 Nov. 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 178730227X
ISBN-13 : 978-1787302273
Dimensions : 13.8 x 2 x 20.4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 91,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 102 in Mountaineering History & Biography
- 149 in Physical Geography
- 200 in Cultural History Biographies

Customer reviews:
49 ratings

Product description

Review

Fresh and completely engaging ... [Cognetti] has a studied simplicity that is suggestive of a mountaineer's ascetic temperament and the writing also feels perfectly adjusted to the daunting character of Dolpo... [a] captivating travelogue -- Mark Cocker ― Spectator

A breath of fresh air for mountain-lovers currently in confinement, this slim, elegant account follows Cognetti's trek through the remote Dolpo region of northwestern Nepal... The sparse, graceful prose...reflects the barren landscape and the author's joy in paring back the distractions of modern life -- Tom Robbins ― Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

From the Back Cover

An awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on earth, from the author of international bestseller The Eight MountainsPaolo Cognetti marked his 40th birthday with a journey he had always wanted to make: to Dolpo, a remote Himalayan region where Nepal meets Tibet.

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5 star		47%
4 star		30%
3 star		16%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Kindle Customer

Poetic meditation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 February 2021

Verified Purchase

Loved this, could cheerfully have kept my attention rapt for another hundred pages but I think it was better in this succinct form, the journey covered and no unnecessary flimflam. Paolo almost assumes that having travelled this far you already have a grasp of the ideas explored. The book concentrates on the journey with Matthieson acting as an earlier blueprint with his In Search of the Snow Leopard. Peaceful,serene and hypnotic.

Helpful

A Captivating Journey of Self-Discovery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2020

In this exquisitely written journal-turned-journey of self-discovery, bestselling author and inimitable Paolo Cognetti examines our universal desire for connection through a voyage in the Himalayas. Why climb a mountain without ever reaching the summit? In 2017, Paolo Cognetti returned to Nepal, not to conquer the mountains but to journey through the high valleys of the Dolpo with a copy of Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard in hand. Drawing on memories of his childhood in the Alps, Cognetti explored the roots of life in the mountains, truly getting to know the communities and the nature that forged this resilient, almost mythical region.

Accompanying him was Remigio, a childhood friend who had never left the mountains of Italy, and Nicola, a painter he had recently met. Joined by a stalwart team of local sherpas, the trio started out in the remote Dolpo region of Nepal. From there, a journey of self-discovery shaped by illness, human connection, and empathy was born. This is a introspective and stunning read, with such rich and beautiful descriptions of the natural landscape as he treks. It is an engaging, captivating and perfect homage to Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, and the line illustrations top the whole thing off nicely. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Harvill Secker for an ARC.

Helpful

mike jones

the snow leopard, 40 years on

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 August 2020

Without Ever Reaching The Summit is a slim but evocative book by an Italian author I was wholly unfamiliar with. I was attracted purely by the subject matter as Nepal is a country I have travelled to on numerous occasions and know quite well. I was further intrigued as the journey described is to the Dolpo region of Nepal, a highly mountainous area near the Tibetan border, a part of the country that I've trekked near but never into (not least as it required an expensive permit). Additionally, Cognetti's literary lodestone throughout is Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard - published in 1978 (the year of Cognetti's birth) - and a book I read years ago and enjoyed.

Providing critical commentary on travel writing often seems to me quite tricky, not least as there are perhaps two main potential readership categories. There are those unfamiliar with the place but who read to travel vicariously - something which might become increasingly normalised in our present pandemic times - and those who've been to whichever location and enjoy being reminded of their time there, and perhaps also relish the opportunity to see how true it all rings (or not). Obviously these groups are fairly mutually exclusive!

In the case of Without Ever Reaching The Summit, I fall in the second category and can say that for me at least, Cognetti captures much of what I recollect. The stark, simple translation (by Stash Luckziw) reflects the sparse, unembellished isolation of the landscape; endless dusty mountain ranges, tourist lungs straining at higher altitudes, monasteries perched on rocky outcrops seemingly oblivious to the passage of time. The author's depiction of the people he encounters matched my general memory of unhurried and unfazed locals and overall he does justice to this largely untouched zone in a remarkable country. It offered me an agreeably nostalgic and meditative reflection on life very far removed from Western freneticism.

For a reader who has never been to Nepal, or spent time in a similarly mountainous environment, it's harder for me to comment how the book might land. Certainly it would give a flavour but it's ultimately impossible for me to judge how successful it might be at seducing the reader and I suppose other reviewers might address this.

To conclude, I can certainly see this book being of strong interest to those familiar with The Snow Leopard or anyone who has been to Nepal (or similar).

With thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Firmin's Whiskers

In the footsteps of Matthiessen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2020

Snow Leopard by Matthiessen is one of my favourite books on so many levels so I had to read this “homage” to it as the author embarks on his own pilgrimage to the Dolpo region following in the footsteps of the original trip. It was great as a reminder about the region, but I would have liked much more detail and the description of the region and trek fleshed out a bit. It’s definitely whetted my appetite to dust off my copy of Snow Leopard to get more of a immersive experience so from that respect it was a success I guess.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Helpful

A Whimsical Account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 November 2020

A short captivating travelogue that cries out to be read. Thisis a real tonic at a time of crisis.
The prose is elliptical. It demands attention from the reader.
The description of the rock scape is bewitching. This mountaineer has found something fresh to say; it is very engaging.

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Without Ever Reaching the Summit: A Himalayan Journey Hardcover – 5 Nov. 2020

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