On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell summited Yosemite’s nearly vertical 3,000-foot Dawn Wall, after nineteen days on the route—just one of a handful of unprecedented free ascents he made. His memoir chronicles his journey starting with a fanatical mountain guide for a father who obsessively pushed his son to the top of the sport-climbing circuit. Caldwell proceeded to fall in love with the vertigo-inducing world of big wall free climbing. But his evolution as a climber was not without challenges, including being held hostage by militants in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and losing his left index finger in an accident. The Push tells the story of Caldwell’s drive, motivation, endurance, and transformation. John Krakauer says, “The Push is the most insightful book about climbing I’ve ever read, and quite possibly the most enjoyable … the writing is consistently captivating and unfailingly honest.”
