To Reach the Clouds: The Walk film tie in - Softcover

Petit, Philippe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571326900 ISBN 13: 9780571326907

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2015

Synopsis

One night in 1974, a young Frenchman secretly - and illegally - rigged a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. At daybreak, he gave the high-wire performance of all time, making eight crossings over the course of an hour, 110 floors up above the earth, as a hundred thousand people gathered on the ground to watch.

In To Reach the Clouds, now filmed as The Walk, Philippe Petit re-creates a six-year quest to realise his dream, an adventure as thrilling as the walk itself. In an unforgettable memoir he tells the story of how he conspired, connived, improvised, and insisted his way to this 'coup', abetted by a motley crew of accomplices, the occasional miracle, and his own unflagging passion. He reveals himself to be not only a virtuoso of the air but also a bold and inspired performer on the page. Animated by never-seen photographs and Petit's ingenious sketches, To Reach the Clouds is a tour de force of the imagination and a serenade to his beloved towers.

About this title

Review:

Breathtakingly life affirming., Sunday Times

How good to remember that morning in 1974 when a young man gave New York a gift of astonishing, indelible beauty. -- Paul Auster

Compelling, terrifying and beautiful., Observer

The book is as astonishing and beautiful as the act itself . . . An act of beauty in the face of death., The Times

It was Philippe Petit who connected the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in an act of beauty and ecstasy. Now that an act of terror has destroyed them both, his book resurrects and reunites them, in sheer defiance of gravity. -- Werner Herzog

To Reach the Clouds describes an act of such spectacular defiance and lunacy that it takes your breath away., Independent

Petit is an artist whose theatre is the sky. In this absorbing book, he reveals himself to be equal parts Houdini, Nureyev and Da Vinci. -- Robin Williams

There is no man alive like Philippe Petit. -- Norman Mailer

Philippe Petit planned and executed the perfect crime . . . and the whole world loved him for doing it. -- Guy F. Tozzoli, President, World Trade Centers Association

Book Description:

Philippe Petit's smash-hit bestseller telling how he crossed between the Twin Towers by tightrope, now major movie The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0571326900
• ISBN 13: 9780571326907
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240