Books by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
In The Shadow of the Mountain
by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
🏆 The Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, 2023
Mountaineer and former Silicon Valley executive Silvia Vasquez-Lavado’s inspirational story intertwines her quest to summit Mount Everest with a vulnerable meditation on her traumatic Peruvian childhood and the story of her struggle to succeed as an immigrant in the United States. After witnessing domestic violence and becoming a victim of child sexual abuse, the author details her struggles with relationships, growing ambition, and coming to terms with her sexuality as a gay woman. Later, mountain climbing becomes a fixation, and a form of catharsis. “Reaching the top isn’t about the accomplishment,” she writes. “It’s about walking in the shadows long enough to see the other side, about learning how to roll with other women and men, and how to lean on and support others instead of white-knuckling life alone.” Kirkus described it as an “emotionally raw and courageous memoir”; the New York Times said it was “cinematic.”
Interviews where books by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado were recommended
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1
In The Shadow of the Mountain
by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado -
2
High: A Journey Across the Himalaya, Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China
by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson -
3
Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia
by Shafik Meghji -
4
The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East
by Rebecca Lowe -
5
The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River
by Tobias Jones
The Best Travel Books of 2023: The Stanford Travel Writing Awards, recommended by Cal Flyn
The Best Travel Books of 2023: The Stanford Travel Writing Awards, recommended by Cal Flyn
Every year, Stanfords, the best travel bookshop in the world (in our view), sponsors the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, with travel writers and journalists judging the best travel book in a number of categories. Here Cal Flyn, our deputy editor, takes us through the eight books shortlisted for the 2023 ‘Travel Book of the Year’ award, taking us from Bolivia to Singapore via Europe, the Middle East and the top of Mt. Everest.
