The book is excellent. I consider myself a slow reader, and yet for my pace, I did very well and finished in 4 days. I couldn't put it down for too long. It reads like a diary, includes much narrative, and a transcript. It isn't ripe with lengthy, descriptive scenes or elegant prose ... but it is straight up, to the point.
Whether one is sympathetic to Boukreev's or Krakauer's claims is less relevant. It is a superb book on one of the most dramatic events in high-altitude mountaineering.
This novel focuses on the efforts of Anatoli, who participated in a major way to the survival and recovery of some of the victims from that fateful day. His story is reflected with precision and climbing minutiae that provides credibility for the more critically informed reader. This was a significant mountain tragedy that prompted important re-evaluation of the sport of making it to the top of Everest.
