One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits
In 2013, I scored an assignment to cover a freediving competition for the New York Times, and witnessed one of the sport’s most beloved athletes, Nick Mevoli, lose his life after an attempt to swim down to 72-meters and back on a single breath.
His death in competition was a first in the sport and became a front-page story, and eventually my first book. One Breath, first published by Crown in 2016, is an underwater Into the Wild, about a charismatic yet self-destructive young American, and his fellow freedivers — all incredible athletes in their own right — who are captivated by the same urge to swim as deep as possible, no matter the cost.
Released to critical acclaim, it was published in three languages, remains in print, and helped inspire the team behind the hit Netflix documentary The Deepest Breath.
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Read what critics and readers are saying.
One Breath plunges readers into a liquid kingdom of immense beauty and ever-present danger, and introduces us to the singular characters who have found themselves drawn deeper and deeper into this realm.
Adam Skolnick has written a captivating, page-turning book about a world that few will ever visit, but that everyone should know.
Why anyone would take a deep breath and dive the depth of a football field is beyond me. Why anyone would write about the extreme sport of freediving becomes clear within the first pages of this stunning book, both an ode to freediving and a warning that the sea is deep, dark and dangerous.
Skolnick’s investigation reveals the perilous passions of freediving’s elite corps, who share a poetic language of foreboding: the drop, on the line, freefall, white cards, the squeeze. He’s captured the glory and euphoria of a fast growing sport that attracts a fearless cast of misfits, yogis and rebels all drawn to the dreamy glide straight down the gullet of a column of blue turning to black. Deeply researched and beautifully written.
One Breath is a gripping heroic tragedy – it reminds us why the edge-seekers inspire us, and how we live through them, even as they break our hearts.
The desire to push limits and the spiritual dimension of sport – the desire to commit and immerse ourselves to the hilt – speak powerfully to those of us who barely snorkel, much less freedive. In his portrayal of Nick Mevoli, Skolnick illuminates what it means to be young: how passion, physical vitality and innocence blur the line between brave and idiotic, inspired and crazy. Pushing the limits of human capability will always ride that line, and One Breath does a masterful job of illuminating that quest and all the love and loss around it.
With echoes of Jon Kraukauer’s Into the Wild, Skolnick weaves together a portrait of a young man who died in his effort to embrace a life defined by the pursuit of what he loved.
A mesmerizing and haunting tale by a very fine writer.
A powerful story about a dangerous, beautiful sport and an unforgettable young man. Skolnick tells his tale with passion and affection for his subject, but also with an admirable journalistic integrity.
In the process, he takes us to distant worlds—underwater universes most of us will never know—where humans are challenged to the utmost limits of being.
One Breath could stand comfortably alongside classics of extreme-sports journalism such as Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.
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