Recounts the inspirational survival story of Judith Sleavin, who survived a sailboat accident that killed the rest of her family and rendered her paralyzed and subject to post-traumatic stress disorder. 50,000 first printing.

An international bestseller. A remarkable true story of one woman's courage. In 1993, Judith and Michael Sleavin and their two children set out to sail around the world. Three years into their incredible journey, a nearby freighter altered its course by a mere ten degrees-and everything changed... After forty-four hours in the icy water clinging to an overturned dinghy, her back broken and paralyzed below the waist, Judith miraculously survived, winding up in a small community on the New Zealand coast. Gripping, unbelievable yet true, Judith's story of courage, survival, and retribution is alternately heartrending and uplifting. It's also a story of unbreakable bonds, of shattering loss, and of one woman reborn through the strength of friendship and the profound love of strangers who became family.

This is the true story of a family who fulfilled their lifelong dreamonly to have it evolve into everyones worst nightmare. It takes courage, commitment, passion, and patience to embrace life fully. The Sleavin family, two adults and their two children, possessed those qualities, and realized their dream to sail around the world in their 47-foot boat, the Melinda Lee. They experienced indescribable beauty, rewarding challenges, deep and meaningful encounters, and a wholly shared understanding of the world and of one another during their meticulously planned and crafted out-of-the ordinary family adventure. The author, a veteran sailor herself, uses her personal experience to take the reader on an ocean voyage, and shares the Sleavins travels while she provides a backdrop of intriguing facts and information. Three years into the circumnavigation, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a ship, thousands of tons of steel, loaded with thousands of tons of timber, altered its course by a mere ten degrees, and everything changed. Every, single, thing. Based upon exclusive interviews with the survivor and other significant individuals, the author takes both an investigational and philosophical approach in order to depict the mystery of the tragedy and its aftermath. This is not a book about sailing, although life at sea is re-created with insight and familiarity. This is a universal tale about love and loss, humanity and inhumanity. This is a story that compels the reader to question and examine ones own behavior when circumstances alter the way we live. This is a story about facing our fears and striving to embrace life, every day.

"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Copyright page.

Set in our nation’s capital, here is a chillingly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warming. When the storm got bad, Frank Vanderwal was in his office at the National Science Foundation. When it was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater. Everything Frank and his colleagues feared had culminated in this disaster. And now the world was looking to them to fix it. But even as D.C. bails itself out, a more extreme climate change looms. The melting polar ice caps are shutting down the warm Gulf Stream waters—meaning Ice Age conditions could return. And the last time that happened, eleven thousand years ago, it took just three years to start.…

Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. But the procedure was filled with gambles, some of them deadly, others beyond May’s wildest dreams. Beautifully written and thrillingly told, Crashing Through is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live. Praise for the National Bestseller Crashing Through: “An incredible human story [told] in gripping fashion . . . a great read.” –Chicago Sun-Times “Inspiring.” –USA Today “[An] astonishing story . . . memorably told . . . May is remarkable. . . . Don’t be surprised if your own vision mists over now and then.” –Chicago Tribune “[A] moving account [of] an extraordinary character.” –People “Terrific . . . [a] genuinely fascinating account of the nature of human vision.” –The Washington Post “Kurson is a man with natural curiosity and one who can feel the excitement life has to offer. One of his great gifts is he makes you feel it, too.” –The Kansas City Star “Propulsive . . . a gripping adventure story.” –Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.