Acclaimed author and climber Isabel Suppé of Argentina will present Starry Night, a true survival account of being trapped atop a mountain in the Bolivian Andes, as a special program at Umatilla and Hermiston.
Suppé´s story has often been referred to as a true female version of Touching the Void. She was near the summit of Ala Izquierda, a 17,761-foot peak in the Bolivian Andes when her partner’s anchors failed to hold and both climbers fell 1,100 feet. Her partner did not survive. Exposed to the elements, Suppé spent two nights dragging herself with a broken leg over a glacier.
“All of the stars in the sky looked like torches,” she said.
Suppé managed to survive more than 40 hours of forceful winds and below-freezing temperatures before a rescue team, including climbers who had given up their own summit attempts to join the search, found her.
An amazing story of survival and perseverance, Suppé´s book Starry Night, now available in English, is a profoundly poetic and sensitive account of a tragic life-changing accident and a young woman´s strife to return to life. Starry Night is a book that asks questions about life and death, about human desire and the redeeming power of beauty.
Suppe’’s program will be presented on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute on the Umatilla Indian Reservation as part of the Eastern Oregon Word Round-Up. Admission is free and signed copies of her book will be available. All ages are invited.
Suppe’ will also present at the Umatilla Public Library on Monday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. and at the Hermiston Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the same time. The programs will include a slide show.
Suppe’s appearances are sponsored by the libraries and Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO) as part of a North American book tour. For further information, contact Umatilla library director Kellie Lamoreaux at 541-922-5704 or Hermiston library director Marie Baldo at 541-567-2882.
