Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas
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Description
In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.
For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.
In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to seek out ever greater extremes, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest—his own hero's journey.
In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a "spiritual journey" to a holy lake—a journey from which he would never return.
Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man's search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfillment in life.
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Harley Rustad. (2022). Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Harley Rustad. 2022. Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Harley Rustad, Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas. HarperAudio, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Harley Rustad. Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2022.
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| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 5 | 4 |
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Harley Rustad is the author of Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada's Last Great Trees. His writing has appeared in publications including Outside, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and Geographical. He is a features editor and writer at The Walrus magazine, a faculty editor at the Banff Centre's mountain and wilderness writing residency, and the founder of the Port Renfrew Writers' Retreat. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Rustad is originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
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Harley Rustad is the author of Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada's Last Great Trees. His writing has appeared in publications including Outside, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and Geographical. He is a features editor and writer at The Walrus magazine, a faculty editor at the Banff Centre's mountain and wilderness writing residency, and the founder of the Port Renfrew Writers' Retreat. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Rustad is originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
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In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.
For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.
In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to seek out ever greater extremes, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest—his own hero's journey.
In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a "spiritual journey" to a holy lake—a journey from which he would never return.
Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man's search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfillment in life.
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March 1, 2022
Expanding on his 2018 article in Outside magazine, Rustad draws listeners into the restless life and unsolved disappearance of a singular individual. A high school dropout but graduate of two wilderness survival schools, Justin Alexander Shetler initially seems somewhat naive and unaware of the privilege that let him wander off the beaten path into online fame as an adventure traveler. Rustad gradually reveals a different person, acknowledging the generous, charismatic friend whom those closest to him recall, and probing the evidence of his complex motivations for increasingly dangerous, ultimately fatal, boundary-pushing. Though Rustad's steady narration conflicts with the pace of Alexander's lifestyle and doesn't suit the bloodcurdling account of Parvati Valley's many other lost travelers that moves this biography into the realm of true crime, the author's clear investment in this case and firsthand experience as a foreign visitor to India add appeal to his reading. VERDICT This meticulously researched, sympathetically narrated audiobook will appeal to listeners who enjoyed Michael Finkel's The Stranger in the Woods, Jon Billman's The Cold Vanish, or Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.--Lauren Kage
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from October 11, 2021
Journalist Rustad (Big Lonely Doug) crafts a haunting narrative of the life of Justin Alexander Shetler, an American backpacker who disappeared in the Indian Himalayas in 2016. A trained survivalist who’d traveled extensively, Shetler vanished while on a trip through India’s remote Parvati Valley. Though it’s renowned for its natural beauty, Rustad writes that Parvati (often called India’s “backpacker Bermuda Triangle”) is also known for its dangerous terrain where dozens have gone missing. Pulling from hundreds of interviews and his own travels to where Shetler was last seen, Rustad draws readers into a tale of adventure and tragedy that, despite its dark outcome, is illuminated with a remarkable sense of humanity. He paints a moving portrait of Shetler, a young man in love with the wilderness who was animated by a daring spirit (“When my greater fear told me no, Justin would just go for something,” one friend recalls). But even in recounting Shetler’s remarkable journeys, Rustad never veers into hagiography, taking time to reflect upon Shelter’s mental health struggles after having being sexually abused as a boy and teen, and how his friends were worried his disappearance may have been a suicide. Equal parts tribute and travelogue, this is sure to enthrall those curious about a life lived to the extreme. Agent: Stuart Krichevsky, Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.
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In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.
For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.
In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a...
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