FACING UP A Remarkable Journey to the Summit of Mount Everest

The youngest Briton ever to reach the summit of Everest and return safely tells his story. Replete with graphic details of life at 20,000-plus feet, Grylls's account also shows his spiritual side. An Everest climb yields plenty of downtime for meditation, and the young trekker mixes hiking anecdotes and scripture. Whether a farmer's son would speak in Julian Rhind-Tutt's upperclass diction is questionable, but the narration is clear, well-paced, and sincere. It's easy to believe that the speaker is tired, homesick, thrilled, frightened, and reverential by turns. There are plenty of brushes with death, well-foreshadowed by author and reader, but we know from the beginning that he survives. In this case, it's the journey, not the arrival, that counts. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]