Joe Simpson is mostly known for his non-fiction work Touching the Void. This classic piece of mountaineering writing recounts the tale of the former mountaineer and his struggle to survive after falling into a crevasse on a mountain in the Peruvian Andes. He landed on an ice ledge 80ft down. His right leg was badly broken, and he could see no way of climbing out of the crevasse. With no option other than to rescue himself, Simpson eventually found the strength to abseil from his landing spot onto a thin ice roof part way down the crevasse, he then climbed back onto the glacier via a steep snow slope.

Simpson’s most recent novel, The Sound of Gravity is a work of fiction and again is set in a mountainous environment. This novel tells the tale of Patrick and his wife, a mountaineering trip gone wrong and of love, loss, regret and survival. One chilling event on a stormbound mountain completely alters Patrick’s world and 25 years later, we join him, manning the warden hut at the foot of the very same mountain that changed his life forever. After a lifetime of grief and guilt, Patrick is eventually freed from his self-imposed vigil, when an all too familiar event forces him to release his heart-rending secret.

From the start you are made aware of the bleakness of their surroundings, the uneasy atmosphere, and the sorrow that is soon to follow. Following the tragic accident and Patrick’s long fight for survival the focus switches to a different fight, a fight against overwhelming grief, pain and guilt. As the book progresses, we find out more about Patrick and how he tries to come to terms with his loss. When another character is introduced to the scene we then discover more about his former life before the accident and how he has spent the 25 years since. It is only When a blizzard threatens to destroy the warden hut, that Patrick is able to come to terms with his past. The combination of danger, the instinctive need for survival and the familiarity of this character leads him to confront his lifelong feelings of survivor guilt.

What this novel does well is conjure up a gnawing sense of bleakness, of the freezing cold, of loneliness and survival. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a survival story in the same sense that Touching the Void was however. It is more about surviving loss and how it can consume all thoughts and feelings. It also uses incredibly poetic and descriptive language. This is ideal when describing the sensation of the northern lights, the harsh and unforgiving landscape, the sadness and raw emotions, but it can get a bit tiresome, I felt it was a little overused and at times I would find my attention drifting because of this. There is also a slight imbalance between Patrick’s physical survival story immediately after the accident and the later years spent in the hut. The first part is tense and very promising, but the second part is more meditative and a lot slower. I did find this style quite unusual for a modern piece of fiction, but then it also fits so perfectly with the surroundings. It definitely illustrates Joe Simpson’s passion and wealth of knowledge of mountaineering and it’s many dangers.

Joe Simpson’s own description of the book sums it up perfectly. He describes it as “a very simple story about love and loss, and about how one incident can completely alter the course of your life—if you let it.”

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