Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a 2012 memoir by American author Cheryl Strayed, describing her 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in a journey of self-discovery. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0.
Wild is Cheryl Strayed's first-person memoir of her 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to the border with Washington State, and contains flashbacks to prior life occurrences that led her to begin her mountain-climbing journey.
Strayed had been devastated by her mother's death, when Strayed was 22 years old. Her stepfather disengaged from Strayed's family, and her brother and sister remained distant. Strayed became involved in heroin use, and eventually she and her husband divorced. Seeking self-discovery and resolution of her enduring grief and personal challenges, at age 26 Strayed set out, alone, on her 1,100-mile journey, having no prior backpacking experience. Wild intertwines the stories of Strayed's life before and during the journey, describing her physical challenges and spiritual realizations while on the trail.
About the author
Cheryl Strayed is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the memoir WILD (Alfred A. Knopf), the advice essay collection TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS (Vintage Books), and the novel TORCH (Houghton Mifflin). WILD will also be published in Brazil, Finland, Germany, Spain, China, the Netherlands, Korea, Sweden, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Denmark, France, Poland, Norway and Italy. WILD was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0. It has been optioned for film by Reese Witherspoon's production company, Pacific Standard. IndieBound selected WILD as their #1 Indie Next pick for April, Barnes and Noble named it a "Discover Great New Writers" pick on their Summer 2012 list, and Amazon named it a "best of March" pick. Strayed's debut novel, TORCH was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and was selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books of the year by writers from the Pacific Northwest. Strayed has written the "Dear Sugar" column on TheRumpus.net since March 2010. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Allure, Self, The Missouri Review, Brain, Child, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun and elsewhere. The winner of a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Sewanee Writers' Conference, her essays and stories have been published in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, THE BEST NEW AMERICAN VOICES, and other anthologies. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota. She's a founding member of VIDA: Women In Literary Arts, and serves on their board of directors. Raised in Minnesota, Strayed now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, the filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, and their two children.
