After the Fall
A Climber's True Story of Facing Death and Finding Life
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
Craig DeMartino never thought this would happen to him. He was 100 feet up a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park when—with one step—his 13 years of rock climbing experience and 15 pounds of gear plummeted with him to the ground. Expert climbers say that if you fall 10 feet you have a 10% chance of dying, a 20% chance at 20 feet, 30% at 30, and so on. Craig fell 100 feet. By basic calculation, Craig should not be alive today. But he is.
In the months that followed, the pain, the subsequent partial leg amputation, the media attention, and the knowledge that his body was broken challenged Craig on a daily basis. Scarier still was the realization that his faith was broken too. Slowly, as his physical body recovered, Craig's emotional and spiritual body strengthened as well. In prayer, Craig learned to take God out of a box and allow His plan and promise to be revealed. Looking back, the doctors and nurses played a big role in Craig's recovery, but it was a series of miracles that saved his life.
For anyone who has been knocked down or run over by life, After the Fall not only offers an engaging read but also provides a clear message of hope: sometimes the greatest gift we can receive isn't just healing, but the power to endure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
DeMartino, an enthusiastic and accomplished rock climber, chronicles his recovery from a major accident in which he survived a fall of more than 100 feet. He was not expected to survive, so as he recounts his recovery process through the book, including from the loss of part of a leg, he focuses on his gradual awareness of the miracles, medical and otherwise, that preserved his life. A nominal Christian before his fall, DeMartino grows closer to God while healing, and finds meaning in his accident by trying to help others see hope for recovery from similar traumas. Indeed, the story is inspiring, and readers will want to cheer his postaccident achievements, such as his becoming the first amputee to climb Yosemite National Park's El Capitan in a single day. The prose is not always elegant, and descriptions of DeMartino's pain can be somewhat belabored, but the story is tightly crafted and movingly told, with the author's faith, strength, and humility clearly on display. As a narrative of trauma, recovery, and the redemption of an ordinary man turned into a role model, the book is well worth a read.
