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Berezina (Paperback)
Sylvain Tesson; Translated by Katherine Gregor
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R395
R321
Discovery Miles 3 210
Save R74 (19%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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October 1812, Napoleon enters Moscow. The Russians have set fire to
the city, soon it will be reduced to a pile of ash. The Emperor
equivocates, decides to turn back. This is the beginning of the
retreat from Russia, a page of history that has become legendary
for its degree of suffering and horror, but also for the heroic
acts that took place. Two hundred years later, Sylvain Tesson,
accompanied by four friends (two Russians and two French), decides
to follow the route of the retreat. Perched on two Soviet Ural
sidecar motorcycles, they will rejoin Paris from Moscow, guided
only by the spectres of the two hundred thousand soldiers who died
through cold, starvation, and in battle. Twenty five hundred miles
travelled in a wild escapade to salute the ghosts of history,
across the white plains of Russia.
Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2019 A New York Times Best Book of 2021
'Extraordinarily beautiful... a long last loving glance at the
planet.' Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild The Art of Patience
sees the renowned French adventurer and writer set off for the high
plateaux of remotest Tibet in search of the elusive snow leopard.
There, in the company of leading wildlife photographer Vincent
Munier and two companions, at 5,000 metres and in temperatures of
-25C, the team set up their hides on exposed mountainsides, and
occasionally in the luxury of an icy cave, to await a visitation
from the almost mythical beast. This tightly focused and tautly
written narrative is simultaneously a dazzling account of an
exacting journey, an apprenticeship in the art of patience, an
acceptance of the ruthlessness of the natural world and, finally, a
plea for ecological sanity. A small masterpiece, it is one of those
books that demands to be read again and again.
Sylvain Tesson found a radical solution to his need for freedom: he
decided to lock himself alone in a cabin in the middle taiga, on
the shores of Baikal, for six months. From February to July 2010 he
lived in silence, solitude and cold. Emotionally, these months
proved a challenge, and the loneliness was crippling. Noting
carefully, almost daily, his impressions of the silence, his
struggles to survive in a hostile nature, his despair, his doubts,
but also his moments of ecstasy, inner peace and harmony with
nature, Sylvain shares with us his extraordinary experience.
A walking journey through France's vast interior becomes a
meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the
present-more than 425,000 copies sold in France After a
free-climbing accident lands him in a coma and a hospital for four
months, the French writer Sylvain Tesson makes a promise to
himself: if he's ever able to walk again, he will traverse the
entire country of France on foot. Part literary adventure, part
philosophical reflection on our contemporary consumer culture, On
the Wandering Paths takes us deep into the heart of what Tesson
terms France's "hyperrural" zones. Tracing the obscure paths
peasants once followed throughout the countryside, Tesson embarks
on a three-month journey of solitude and personal contemplation as
he walks along vast stretches of mountain ranges and rivers,
encountering ancient Roman stone bridges and walkways, the French
Foreign Legion, pagan prayer sites, Provencal villages, and the
majestic Mont-Saint-Michel. Connecting deeply with the places he
visits, his experiences inspire reflection on the essential need to
disengage from the digital and immerse oneself in natural beauty.
Rich with humor, historical insight, and literary power, On the
Wandering Paths is both a meditation on the act of recovery and a
potent recognition of the traces of our past in the present. Asking
us to reassess our values and our relationship to the land,
Tesson's exquisite chronicle through landscapes that continue to
resist urbanization and technology is a thoughtful-and
thought-provoking-glimpse into a poet's adventurous life. Les
Chemins de Pierre, a film based on the book starring Jean Dujardin,
is due to release in 2022.
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