The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593296288)

A journey in search of one of the most elusive creatures on the planet

Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.

For the chance to glimpse this near mythical beast, Tesson and his companions must wait for hours without making a sound or a movement, enduring the thin air and brutal cold. Their vigil becomes an act of faith--many have pursued the snow leopard for years without seeing it--and as they keep their watch, Tesson comes to embrace the virtues of patience and silence. His faith is rewarded when the snow leopard, the spirit of the mountain, reveals itself: an embodiment of what we have surrendered in our contemporary lives. And the simple act of waiting proves to be an antidote to the frenzy of our times.

A celebration of the power and grace of the wild, and a requiem for the world's vanishing places, The Art of Patience is a revelatory account of the communion between nature and the human heart. Sylvain Tesson has written a new masterpiece on the relationship between man and beast in prose as sublime as the wilderness that inspired it.

Author: Sylvain Tesson
ISBN-10: 0593296281
ISBN-13: 9780593296288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Language: English
Published: 07/13/2021
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.70w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/12/2021
Library Journal 05/28/2021 pg. 1
Booklist 07/30/2021