Essays on Loss
 
When Tyler Dunning’s best friend is killed in a terrorist
attack, the experience forces him to confront grief, depression,
and his own destructive tendencies. To cope, he turns to travel,
wandering the United States and crossing paths with a suicidal
shaman, a Cambodian alien hunter, and off-the-grid meth
addicts. He weathers an Atlantic hurricane, endures the Black
Rock Desert, and attempts summiting Longs Peak, the highest
point in northern Colorado, convinced that by overcoming the
mountain he can overcome loss. But just when you think Tyler
has come to terms with the passing of more friends—to rare
disease, accidental drowning, and self-destruction—you won’t
believe the final lesson death has in store for him. This is a book
of goodbyes, of migration, of achieving restoration—a five-year
journey founded upon coming-of-age heartache, the loss of
innocence, and finding hope in our natural world.