The Art of Patience

Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2019

A New York Times Best Book of 2021

‘Extraordinarily beautiful… a long last loving glance at the planet.’ Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild

The Art of Patience sees the renowned French adventurer and writer set off for the high plateaux of remotest Tibet in search of the elusive snow leopard. There, in the company of leading wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and two companions, at 5,000 metres and in temperatures of -25ºC, the team set up their hides on exposed mountainsides, and occasionally in the luxury of an icy cave, to await a visitation from the almost mythical beast.

This tightly focused and tautly written narrative is simultaneously a dazzling account of an exacting journey, an apprenticeship in the art of patience, an acceptance of the ruthlessness of the natural world and, finally, a plea for ecological sanity.

A small masterpiece, it is one of those books that demands to be read again and again.