Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.

Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child and chased waves through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, and Africa. A bookish boy turned distinguished writer and war reporter, he brings the same precision to describing a perfect wave as he does to conflict zones. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little-understood art.

• Author: William Finnegan
• Format: Paperback, 464 pages
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"