James Salter

From his experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It is a time when publishing is still largely a private affair - a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe - a time of gatherings in fabled apartments and conversations that continue long into the night. In this world of dinners, deals, and literary careers, Bowman finds that he fits in perfectly....

Vernon Rand is a charismatic figure whose great love-whose life, in fact-is climbing. He lives alone in California, where he combats the drudgery of a roofing job with the thrill of climbing in the nearby mountain ranges. Sure of only his talent and nerve, Rand decides to test himself in the French Alps, with their true mountaineering and famed, fearsome peaks. He soon learns that the most perilous moments are, for him, the moments when he feels truly...

Traces the growth and demise of a love affair between a young Yale dropout and the provincial French girl who becomes his mistress.

When a Vincent sold at auction for $1.2 million in 2018 it became the most expensive motorcycle in the world. Today, riders such as Jay Leno, Brad Pitt and Ryan Reynolds collect these beautiful machines. Yet its creator, Philip Vincent, died penniless and living in public housing. The Ewan McGregor-narrated Speed is Expensive is the story of how one man's obsession with speed cost him everything.

A skier desperate to win gold in the Olympics joins an American team only to find that his new coach doesn't agree with how he goes about getting it.