Learning to Breathe - by Alison Wright (Paperback)

About the Book

Wright offers this searing and uplifting account of her spiritual journey, beginning with the survival of a terrible accident and taking readers to her triumphant ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Book Synopsis

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An extraordinary spiritual memoir about the will to survive, one breath at a time, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama

While traveling in Laos on a winding mountain road, the bus that award-winning photojournalist Alison Wright was riding in collided with a logging truck. As she waited fourteen hours for proper medical care-in excruciating pain, certain she was moments from death, she drew upon years of meditation practice and concentrated on every breath as if it would be her last.

Despite countless surgeries and a grueling recovery, Alison set herself the goal of achieving a new dream: to one day climb Mount Kilimanjaro-and she reached the summit on her fortieth birthday. Gasping for air once again, she stood at the highest point in Africa, determined to never again take a single breath for granted. Perfect for readers who love spiritual authors traveling abroad, such as Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea), this memoir is an amazingly inspirational tale of how a life-changing accident transformed one woman's faith.

Review Quotes

"[A] profound writer... a true pilgrim...There is muscle and tears here, and the fiercest flame of inspiration."--Richard Gere

"Photojournalist Wright has gone to the ends of the earth, including some mountaintops, in a career that has documented the human wonders of the world, especially resilient children and endangered cultures. In this memoir she turns her lens on herself and her own astonishing story... The author's spiritual insights are fascinating."--Publishers Weekly

"Wright's seize-the-day attitude and fierce determination to reach the summit will spur you to hurdle whatever obstacles might lie in your path."--Self

"Alison's story makes clear that if you have courage you can achieve what others consider to be impossible."--From the Foreword by the Dalai Lama

About the Author

Alison Wright, a New York-based documentary photographer, has spent a career capturing the universal human spirit through her photographs and writing. For many of her projects, Alison travels to the remotest regions of the globe photographing endangered cultures and people while documenting issues concerning the human condition.

Alison is a recipient of the Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography, and a two-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. Alison was named a National Geographic Traveler of the Year as someone who travels with a sense of passion and purpose and awarded Premier Travelers Most Compelling Woman in the Travel Industry.