#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

At twenty-two?? Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the"ake of her mother??s death?? her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later?? with nothing more to lose?? she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training?? driven only by blind will?? she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State?and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style?? sparkling with warmth and humor?? Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened?? strengthened?? and ultimately healed her.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR?? The Boston Globe???Entertainment Weekly???Vogue?? St. Louis Dispatch?

Wild tracks Strayed's personal journey on the PCT through California and Oregon?? as she comes to terms with devastating loss and her unpredictable reactions to it. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story?? Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker?? the ubiquitous perils of the PCT?? and its peculiar community of wanderers. Others may find her unsympathetic--just one victim of her own questionable choices. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy?? and her confident prose stands on its own?? deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. --Jon Foro

From Author Cheryl Strayed

Oprah with Cheryl Strayed?? author of Book Club 2.0's inaugural selection?? Wild.

I wrote the last line of my first book?? Torch?? and then spent an hour crying while lying on a cool tile floor in a house on a hot Brazilian island. After I finished my second book?? Wild?? I walked alone for miles under a clear blue sky on an empty road in the Oregon Outback. I sat bundled in my coat on a cold patio at midnight staring up at the endless December stars after completing my third book?? Tiny Beautiful Things. There are only a handful of other days in my life--my wedding?? the births of my children--that I remember as vividly as those solitary days on which I finished my books. The settings and situations were different?? but the feeling was the same: an overwhelming mix of joy and gratitude?? humility and re