In "Consolations of the Forest", Sylvain Tesson explains how he found a radical solution to his need for freedom, one as ancient as the experiences of the hermits of old Russia: he decided to lock himself alone in a cabin in the middle taiga, on the shores of Baikal, for six months. From February to July 2010, he lived in silence, solitude, and cold. His cabin, built by Soviet geologists in the Brezhnev years, is a cube of logs three meters by three meters, heated by a cast iron skillet, six-day walk from the nearest village and hundreds of miles of track. To live isolated from the world while retaining one's sanity requires a routine, Tesson discovered. In the morning, he would read, write, smoke, or draw, and then devoted hours to cutting the wood, shoveling snow, and fishing. Emotionally, these months proved a challenge, and the loneliness was crippling. Tesson found in paper a valuable confidant, the notebook, a polite companion. Noting carefully, almost daily, his impressions of the silence, his struggles to survive in a hostile nature, his despair, his doubts, but also its moments of ecstasy, inner peace and harmony with nature, Sylvain Tesson shares with us an extraordinary experience. Writer, journalist and traveler, Sylvain Tesson was born in 1972. After a world tour by bicycle, he developed a passion for Central Asia, and has travelled tirelessly since 1997. He came to prominence in 2004 with a remarkable travelogue, Axis of Wolf (Robert Laffont). Editions Gallimard have already published his "A Life of a Mouthful" (2009) and, with Thomas Goisque and Bertrand de Miollis, "High Voltage" (2009). In 2009 he won the Prix Goncourt for "A Life of a Mouthful", and in 2011 won the Prix Medicis for non-fiction for "Consolations of the Forest: Alone in Siberia".

Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga

Science & Math

TESSON, Sylvain

Nature & Ecology

Rizzoli Ex Libris

Product Description 
A journey in search of one of the most elusive creatures on the planet\nAdventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.\nFor the chance to glimpse this near mythical beast, Tesson and his companions must wait for hours without making a sound or a movement, enduring the thin air and brutal cold. Their vigil becomes an act of faith--many have pursued the snow leopard for years without seeing it--and as they keep their watch, Tesson comes to embrace the virtues of patience and silence. His faith is rewarded when the snow leopard, the spirit of the mountain, reveals itself: an embodiment of what we have surrendered in our contemporary lives. And the simple act of waiting proves to be an antidote to the frenzy of our times.\nA celebration of the power and grace of the wild, and a requiem for the world's vanishing places, 
The Art of Patience is a revelatory account of the communion between nature and the human heart. Sylvain Tesson has written a new masterpiece on the relationship between man and beast in prose as sublime as the wilderness that inspired it. 
 Review 
“In 
The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet, the French writer Sylvain Tesson chronicles his rapturous journey through Tibet’s Chantang plateau with the wildlife photographer Vincent Munier. Tesson’s words, in a ravishing translation by Frank Wynne, paint pictures as vivid as any photograph.” 
— 
The New York Times Book Review\n“The Art of Patience is extraordinarily beautiful, a narrative of prose that flows with poetry, a long, last loving glance at the planet, a visit to the vital bedside of a living world determined to stay alive.” 
—Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild: How Animals Learn to be Animals\n“Beautifully written, beautifully translated, intensely moving and totally absorbing.” 
—Stanley Johnson, author of Where the Wild Things Were\n“A wonderful evocation of waiting and watching for nature.” 
—Tim Birkhead, author of The Wisdom of Birds and Bird Sense 
 About the Author 
Sylvain Tesson has walked from Russia to India, participated in archaeological expeditions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and wintered alone in a cabin on a lake in Siberia. He earned a diplôme d’études appliquées in geopolitics at the University of Paris VIII. One of France’s most celebrated writers, he has been awarded the Prix Médicis Essai and the Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle. An international bestseller, 
The Art of Patience won the Prix Renaudot in 2019. 
 Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 
The Goal 
Like skiing instructors in the Tyrol, snow leopards make love amid silvery white landscapes. In February, they go into rut. Swathed in furs, they live amid the ice. The males fight, the females offer themselves, couples call to each other. Munier had warned me: if we were to have a chance of spotting a snow leopard, we would have to track it in the dead of winter, at an altitude of between 4,000 and 5,000 meters. I would try to counterbalance the discomforts of winter with the joy of an apparition. It was a technique Saint Bernadette had adopted in the grotto at Lourdes. While the little shepherdess doubtless suffered from cold knees, the sight of a Virgin ringed with a halo was worth it. 
"Leopard": the very word chimed like precious stones. There was no guarantee that we would encounter one. Hunting from a hide is a wager: you set out in search of an animal; you court failure. Some people are untroubled by this; they enjoy the anticipation. Sadly, I am not amon

The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet

Biological Sciences

Penguin Press

Penguin??Books

A meditation on escaping the chaos of modern life and rediscovering the luxury of solitude. Winner of the Prix Médicis for nonfiction, The Consolations of the Forest is a Thoreau-esque quest to find solace, taken to the extreme. No stranger to inhospitable places, Sylvain Tesson exiles himself to a wooden cabin on Siberia’s Lake Baikal, a full day’s hike from any "neighbor," with his thoughts, his books, a couple of dogs, and many bottles of vodka for company. Writing from February to July, he shares his deep appreciation for the harsh but beautiful land, the resilient men and women who populate it, and the bizarre and tragic history that has given Siberia an almost mythological place in the imagination. Rich with observation, introspection, and the good humor necessary to laugh at his own folly, Tesson’s memoir is about the ultimate freedom of owning your own time. Only in the hands of a gifted storyteller can an experiment in isolation become an exceptional adventure accessible to all. By recording his impressions in the face of silence, his struggles in a hostile environment, his hopes, doubts, and moments of pure joy in communion with nature, Tesson makes a decidedly out-of-the-ordinary experience relatable. The awe and joy are contagious, and one comes away with the comforting knowledge that "as long as there is a cabin deep in the woods, nothing is completely lost."

The Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga

History

A walking journey through France’s vast interior becomes a meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the present—more than 425,000 copies sold in France\nAfter a free-climbing accident lands him in a coma and a hospital for four months, the French writer Sylvain Tesson makes a promise to himself: if he’s ever able to walk again, he will traverse the entire country of France on foot. 
Part literary adventure, part philosophical reflection on our contemporary consumer culture, On the Wandering Paths takes us deep into the heart of what Tesson terms France’s “hyperrural” zones. Tracing the obscure paths peasants once followed throughout the countryside, Tesson embarks on a three-month journey of solitude and personal contemplation as he walks along vast stretches of mountain ranges and rivers, encountering ancient Roman stone bridges and walkways, the French Foreign Legion, pagan prayer sites, Provençal villages, and the majestic Mont-Saint-Michel. Connecting deeply with the places he visits, his experiences inspire reflection on the essential need to disengage from the digital and immerse oneself in natural beauty. 
Rich with humor, historical insight, and literary power, On the Wandering Paths is both a meditation on the act of recovery and a potent recognition of the traces of our past in the present. Asking us to reassess our values and our relationship to the land, Tesson’s exquisite chronicle through landscapes that continue to resist urbanization and technology is a thoughtful—and thought-provoking—glimpse into a poet’s adventurous life. Les Chemins de Pierre, a film based on the book starring Jean Dujardin, is due to release in 2022.

On the Wandering Paths (Univocal)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Univ. of Minnesota Press

Lire Magazine Best Travel Book 
Take four friends, put them on two Ural motorcycles (complete with sidecars), send them off on a 2,500-mile odyssey retracing history’s most famous retreat, add what some might consider an excessive amount of Vodka, and you’ve got Sylvain Tesson’s Berezina, a riotous and erudite book that combines travel, history, comradery, and adventure. 
The retreat of Napoleon’s Grande Armée from Russia culminated, after a humiliating loss, with the crossing of the River Berezina, a word that henceforth became synonymous with unmitigated disaster for the French and national pride for the Russians. Two hundred years after this battle, Sylvain Tesson and his friends retrace Napoleon’s retreat, along the way reflecting on the lessons of history, the meaning of defeat, and the realities of contemporary Europe. A great read for history buffs and for anyone who has ever dreamed of an adventure that is out of the ordinary.

Berezina: From Moscow to Paris Following Napoleon’s Epic Fail

Military

Europa Compass

Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2019 
‘Extraordinarily beautiful… a long last loving glance at the planet.’ Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild 
The Art of Patience sees the renowned French adventurer and writer set off for the high plateaux of remotest Tibet in search of the elusive snow leopard. There, in the company of leading wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and two companions, at 5,000 metres and in temperatures of -25ºC, the team set up their hides on exposed mountainsides, and occasionally in the luxury of an icy cave, to await a visitation from the almost mythical beast. 
This tightly focused and tautly written narrative is simultaneously a dazzling account of an exacting journey, an apprenticeship in the art of patience, an acceptance of the ruthlessness of the natural world and, finally, a plea for ecological sanity. 
A small masterpiece, it is one of those books that demands to be read again and again.

Religion & Spirituality

Oneworld Publications

"En Sibérie, dans les glens écossais, les criques de l'Égée ou les montagnes de Géorgie, les héros de ces quinze nouvelles ne devraient jamais oublier que les lois du destin et les forces de la nature sont plus puissantes que les désirs et les espérances. Rien ne sert à l'homme de trop s'agiter dans la toile de l'existence, car la vie, même quand elle ne commence pas très bien, finit toujours mal. Et puis une mauvaise chute vaut mieux qu'une fin insignifiante." Sylvain Tesson.\nBook Description\n"Rien ne sert à l'homme de trop s'agiter dans la toile de l'existence, car la vie, même quand elle ne commence pas très bien, finit toujours mal. Et puis une mauvaise chute vaut mieux qu'une fin insignifiante." Sylvain Tesson.\nFrom the Back Cover\n"En Sibérie, dans les glens écossais, les criques de l'Égée ou les montagnes de Géorgie, les héros de ces quinze nouvelles ne devraient jamais oublier que les lois du destin et les forces de la nature sont plus puissantes que les désirs et les espérances. Rien ne sert à l'homme de trop s'agiter dans la toile de l'existence, car la vie, même quand elle ne commence pas très bien, finit toujours mal. Et puis une mauvaise chute vaut mieux qu'une fin insignifiante." Sylvain Tesson.

Une vie à coucher dehors

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Gallimard]

Haute tension: Des chasseurs alpins en Afghanistan

Miollis, Bertrand de

Goisque, Thomas

Essays & Commentary

Dans les forêts de Sibérie - Prix Médicis essai 2011

Dans les forêts de Sibérie

Literary

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