White

When Sylvain Tesson left the colourful yellow houses of the French Riviera for a ski trek across the Alps with his friend, a high-altitude mountain guide, he didn’t know what exactly awaited him. The trek would turn into an extraordinary adventure.

Over the course of four years they ascended high into the Alps in winter, following the curve of the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, immersing themselves in a strange white world made entirely of snow. In the bitter cold and overlooked by an empty sky, only the effort of moving forward, one difficult stride at a time, separated the days from one another. And as they trudged onwards, the never-ending white of the high Alps cancelled out all feelings – hope, fear, memory and regret.

What did he stand to gain by inflicting this ordeal on himself? This was no ordinary mountain trek: it was a search for communion with the magic substance of the White.Over the course of four years they ascended high into the Alps in winter, following the curve of the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, immersing themselves in a strange white world made entirely of snow. In the bitter cold and overlooked by an empty sky, only the effort of moving forward, one difficult stride at a time, separated the days from one another. And as they trudged onwards, the never-ending white of the high Alps cancelled out all feelings – hope, fear, memory and regret. What did he stand to gain by inflicting this ordeal on himself? This was no ordinary mountain trek: it was a search for communion with the magic substance of the White.

Foreword: What Is to Be Done?

Year One: 2018. Freedom
Year Two: 2019. Time
Year Three: 2020. Beauty
Year Four: 2021. Oblivion

Farewell to the White "Sylvain Tesson is more a word artist than a nonfiction writer. He writes with the nuanced ear of a great novelist, the soul of a poet, and the urgency of a messenger. White is both journey and pilgrimage, part travelogue, part prayer."
Carl Safina, ecologist and author

"A journal from the edge of the world, laced with witty, poetic observations and exquisitely graceful turns of phrase."
Le Monde des Livres

"A vertiginous immersion in the secret beauty of snow-capped summits, a journey as poetic as it is spiritual."
La Grande Librairie

Sylvain Tesson is one of France’s leading travel and nature writers, whose books have won him a wide international readership and a number of top prizes, including the 2019 Prix Renaudot for The Art of Patience. His highly regarded book Consolations of the Forest was published in English in 2014.