Art of Patience
Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2019
A New York Times Best Book of 2021
‘Extraordinarily beautiful… a long last loving glance at the planet.’ Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild
The snow leopard stalks the frozen expanse of the Tibetan plateau – 4,500 metres above sea level. Fierce, silent, near invisible, she is a perfectly adapted predator.
Escaping Paris’s urban sprawl, the renowned French adventurer Sylvain Tesson journeys into the frozen wilderness in search of these most elusive creatures.
Tightly focused and tautly written, Tesson offers a dazzling account of a singular journey, a meditation on the ruthlessness of the natural world, a plea for ecological sanity and a reflection on the lost art of patience.
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‘One of the best books of the year.’ Financial Times
‘A transcendent travel writer.’ Countryfile, Best Books of 2021
‘A poetic eulogy to the planet.’ Big Issue
Sylvain Tesson is one France’s leading travel and nature writers, whose books have won him hundreds and thousands of readers in France and a number of its top prizes, including the 2019 Prix Renaudot for The Art of Patience. His highly regarded Consolations of the Forest was published in English in 2014.
Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator whose translations, including works by Michel Houllebecq, Frédéric Beigbeder and Pierre Lemaitre, have won him a number of prizes. His translation of Virginie Despentes’s Vernon Subutex 1 was shortlisted for the 2018 Booker International Prize.