The Wall

by Jeff Long

Book Overview

When Hugh Glass sets off into the vertical wilderness of El Cap, he is at once revisiting his past and unwittingly becoming its prey. He unites with his climbing partner Lewis to reprise their first... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743266161
• ISBN13: 9780743266161
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Recommended to Anyone Who Appreciates Great Fiction

Best friends since childhood, Hugh Glass and Lewis Cole share a love of mountain climbing that borders on obsession. They return to Yosemite's El Cap, the wall they christened more than thirty years ago. Their wives, whom they met at the base of the mountain, are lost to them now. One leaving. The other dead. Each man has his own reason for attacking El Cap again. As Hugh readies their supplies, he discovers the dead body of a beautiful, fallen climber. A crazed, raving caveman appears but serves only to delay Hugh's efforts to tell rangers about the apparent accident. Once Lewis leaves him at the lodge's bar later, Hugh finds himself tempted by his buddy's estranged wife. Something about their climb doesn't feel right. Doubt looms between them and even their old rituals and scripted utterances don't heal the rupture. Something is beckoning Hugh upward while warning Lewis to abort. In the meantime, the lunatic caveman who has stolen the dead woman's body, reappears. Things are further complicated when they are joined by Augustine, a young, showy member of the rescue crew who is determined to locate the surviving two members of the ill-fated but gutsy three-member climb. Without adequate sleep or nourishment, Augustine is a danger to himself and to his spooked partner who abandons him and descends with Lewis. Hugh, still lured by sirens, joins Augustine for a more dangerous mission than he imagines. The demons that frightened Lewis back down the mountain begin to emerge. Voices, shadows, rain, fire and ice threaten to send them flying into the abyss. Just about five-hundred feet from the summit, the ropes that have held them together begin to unravel. The Wall is a flawlessly written story of man versus nature, his fellow man and himself. The action is intense. The characters hang on the edge of life and death, always fighting the urge to look directly into the bright light of uncertainty. When the story is finished, all of the expertly inserted clues come to the fore.

The height of suspense

Hugh Glass and Lewis Cole, two old friends and expert rock climbers, reunite at Yosemite's El Capitan to relive their glory days by making one last climb of its treacherous Anasazi wall. Well into middle age and fleeing their personal problems, they want to prove that they still have what it takes to reach the summit. From the time they set out to tackle the big wall, they are dogged by problems. First Hugh discovers the body of a woman climber who plunged off the wall to her death when disaster befell her climbing party. A madman then attacks Hugh and makes off with the body. During their climb, Hugh and Lewis meet a park service employee who is desperately searching for his lover, another of the women in the climbing party. Hugh is persuaded to join in the search. As they ascend the wall, it seems that they are laboring under a curse and are being lured to their deaths. Through fire and ice, madness and magic, storms and nightmares, the men have to struggle to keep El Cap from claiming their lives. Author Jeff Long, a veteran climber himself, includes many details about the mechanics and equipment of rock climbing, as well as the hazards, both physical and mental, that can endanger a climber. The book begins with the frighteningly realistic fall of a climber, and it never lets up its suspenseful pace and ominous tone from that point onward. Interwoven throughout the action are supernatural and spiritual elements as well as human doubts and fears that enhance the story. The wall itself is imbued with a menacing persona that adds to the feeling of doom. There is a surprising twist to the ending that had me revisiting parts of the story to reinterpret some of the dialogue. This is a powerful and harrowing thriller that will keep the reader turning pages. Eileen Rieback

Written as one who has been there.. top notch reading.

Call it a psychological thriller, or call it extreme action or adventure or all of the above. Regardless, this book was written with a lot of heart touched by experience to make it all the more credible and readable. I had a hard time of letting it go between reading sessions but looked forward to the next chance to pick it up. The story mainly takes place on the wall of El Capitan in Yosemite as a couple of aging big wall climbers try to recapture what they did and experienced many years ago when they pioneered their own route up the largest climbing monolith. Before they are even on the wall certain events that could be seen as premonitions occur which come back to haunt them. They also bring their own histories, failings and tragedies on the wall with them which eventually look them in the eye and maybe even possess them. Relationships are examined, truths are laid bare, sins are acknowledged and prices are paid. A book to be highly recommended by the discriminating reader of adventure/thriller matter.

exciting thriller

Thirty-five years ago buddies Hugh Glass and Lewis Cole climbed Yosemite's El Cap Mountain where they also met their future wives. However, now Hugh's wife is gone and Lewis' spouse is divorcing him. Yearning for a repeat of their greatest triumph, the two friends agree to climb El Cap again though they do not expect to find the respective highlight film of their lives when they met their beloveds. Hugh and Lewis are lonely, missing their wives, as they begin the ascent. However, they soon find a corpse of an apparent person who fell off the cliff. Shocked already, a wild caveman Joshua attacks the two climbers and abducts the body they found. They continue their trek when they run into a search and rescue guide Augustine who hunts for his missing fiancée. Lewis abruptly leaves the climb while Hugh joins the SAR guide on his quest to find lost climbers even as a nasty storm is coming and Joshua stalks the two men. The key element to this exciting thriller is the treatment of THE WALL; the mountain side seems like the prime protagonist with Hugh and Lewis acting more like major support players. For instance the description of the impact of gravity on a woman falling off the wall will shake the audience. The tension picks up as Hugh helps the SAR guide while Lewis leaves and never slows down through a shocking final twist that will leave the audience longing more natural thrillers like this tense tale. Harriet Klausner

Awesome thrill ride--I recommend "The Wall" by Jeff Long

Jeff Long takes an already terrifying scenario of climbing the notorious "El Capitan" in Yosemite Valley, CA and mixes in an even more terrifying storyline involving falling bodies, stolen corpses, violent storms and not to mention emotional angst. It's part "Sideways" (the movie) as two buddies relive the past as they're both about to embark on a life changes and part "The Shining" with a heaping table spoon of "Touching the Void". Long puts you on that rock and makes you feel that you're right there--and "there" is one VERY scary place to be!