Last Breath - Hardcover

A dazzling synthesis of science and adventure, LAST BREATH explores through anecdotes what happens to our bodies and minds in the perilous last moments of life when an extreme adventure goes wrong.With more and more people setting out to climb nearly unclimbable mountains, swim unfathomable seas, and cut through unimaginable jungles, extreme deaths and near-death experiences are filling the news. Original and fresh, with a strong narrative hook, LAST BREATH is a synthesis of science, anecdote, history, caution, cure, and prevention. It examines the physiological, psychological, and emotional stages our bodies and minds travel through at the brink of death. Stark confronts and explains hypothermia, drowning, altitude sickness, heat stroke, falling, deep-sea bends, malaria, dehydration, and scurvy. Readers will shiver with the man lost in New England's snowy woods, suffering from hypothermia. They will hallucinate with a young woman as she succumbs to a cerebral edema stranded in a homemade snow cave near the top of Anapurna. They will gasp for a last breath with the foolish deep-sea diver descending too far into the deep with too little oxygen. Stark himself describes the book as a "Tibetan Book of the Dead for the adventurous set" because a large part of the stories explores the euphoria and mysticism that many people experience in the final moments before their last breath. Armchair adventurers and science seekers will not want to miss this exhilarating exploration, this fresh and original contribution to the growing popularity of narrative adventure writing.

Peter Stark has been a freelance writer for fifteen years, contributing regularly to Outside. Smithsonian, and The New Yorker. He lives in Missoula, Montana.