Together on Top of the World

March 15, 2007
On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler stood atop the highest mountain in the world. Theirs, too, is a story of overcoming great odds: Susan had only started climbing in her mid-30s, and Phil, a veteran climber (and the first American to reach the top of Everest from the north face), suffered from Crohn's, a disease that would have kept most men on the ground their whole lives. When a cancer diagnosis threatened to end Phil's mountain-climbing career, the Ershlers fought back the only way they knew how. Rather than using a single narrative, the authors each contribute their own first-person accounts (which appear in differing typefaces). While skipping back and forth between narrators can be a bit jarring, the effect is to tell two stories simultaneously, which allows readers to contrast Phil's and Susan's perspectives as events unfold. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)