A journey in search of one of the most elusive creatures on the
planet
Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central
Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and
traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident
that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he
found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment
spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in
search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.
For the chance to glimpse this near mythical beast, Tesson and his
companions must wait for hours without making a sound or a movement,
enduring the thin air and brutal cold. Their vigil becomes an act of
faith--many have pursued the snow leopard for years without seeing
it--and as they keep their watch, Tesson comes to embrace the virtues of
patience and silence. His faith is rewarded when the snow leopard, the
spirit of the mountain, reveals itself: an embodiment of what we have
surrendered in our contemporary lives. And the simple act of waiting
proves to be an antidote to the frenzy of our times.
A celebration of the power and grace of the wild, and a requiem for the
world's vanishing places, The Art of Patience is a revelatory account
of the communion between nature and the human heart. Sylvain Tesson has
written a new masterpiece on the relationship between man and beast in
prose as sublime as the wilderness that inspired it.
