The World Beneath Their Feet

[Ellsworth] recasts the era as a great Himalayan race … [and] it works brilliantly … his account of the 1953 ascent of Everest … feels unusually fresh * Sunday Times *Like if Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air met Lauren Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, it’s an inviting and engrossing read * Sports Illustrated *The dramatic saga of the race between nations to climb the planet’s highest mountains…In vivid, novelistic prose, the author describes the significant expeditions and delivers engaging portraits of climbers from many different countries and their invaluable Sherpas * Kirkus *Gripping * Sunday Times *An exceptional account of trailblazing mountaineers who persevered during a turbulent time in history * Booklist *Plenty of rollicking stories * The Times *

Scott Ellsworth is the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Game, which was the winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. He has written about American history for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Formerly a historian at the Smithsonian Institution, he is the author of Death in a Promised Land, his groundbreaking account of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. He lives with his wife and twin sons in Ann Arbor, where he teaches at the University of Michigan.