A memoir of sex, angst, and rocks that chronicles one woman’s ascent-on walls of stone and within herself-as she faces her demons and finds freedom and power in the raw and wild adventure of rock climbing. Down on the ground, it was hard to connect, hard to attach, hard to untangle, hard to let go. But up here, I understood. Up here, I could make it good. Broken by an abusive relationship, Emily Meg Weinstein impulsively tries rock climbing on a California road trip, following strangers into the vertical world. Soon, she is consumed by her addiction to the freedom she feels when she’s up on the wall. Holding on to the rocks, she is free from societal constraints and expectations, free from her own sorrows and longings. Like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, but in the vertical, or William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, if lived by a Jewish woman from Long Island, Turn to Stone tells the story of a journey into nature that becomes a crucible of self-discovery.
