Lost in the Valley of Death - A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas

"A layered inquisition and a reportorial force…a technicolor mystery.... In prose that moves like a clear river....Rustad has done what the best storytellers do: tried to track the story to its last twig and then stepped aside.”— New York Times Book Review

In the vein of Jon Krakauer''s Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.

For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.

In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler, quit his job at a tech startup and set