Reviews

Aged 54, Kieran Kelly, a man terrified of heights, decided to learn to climb mountains. It was a decision taken to ward off his fears of ageing, and to fill the void in his life left as his children grew up and moved away from home.

On the perilous slopes of Mount Aspiring in New Zealand, Kieran was to discover more than just how to climb mountains. Forced by the brutal realities of the mountain to confront his real motivations for taking up such a dangerous sport, Kieran found himself reliving a past he would rather not have remembered.

Aspiring is a book about what drives men, and how much our past shapes the people we are. It is also a thrilling account of the experience of climbing for the first time, with all its terror and elation. Gripping, stark and powerful, Aspiring examines the way we overcome our inner demons, as well as our outer fears.