The Snow Leopard
Peter Matthiessen's account of a trek through the Himalayas in search of the rare snow leopard and spiritual clarity.
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What you might want to know about The Snow Leopard
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Two years after his wife's death, naturalist Peter Matthiessen joined biologist George Schaller for a 1973 trek into the high Crystal Mountain region of Nepal to study bharal blue sheep and the chance of a snow leopard. The book is a daily journal of the two-month walk in, written in Buddhist time.
Yes. The Snow Leopard is Peter Matthiessen's 1978 memoir of a 1973 trek through Himalayan Nepal with biologist George Schaller, searching for the elusive snow leopard. It blends adventure, Buddhism, and grief over Matthiessen's recently deceased wife.
Yes. The Snow Leopard won the National Book Award in 1979. Peter Matthiessen later won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2008 for Shadow Country, making him one of the few writers to win in both categories.
The Snow Leopard was written by Peter Matthiessen, published in 1978 by The Harvill Press.
The Snow Leopard is 338 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Snow Leopard takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Snow Leopard is a standalone novel by Peter Matthiessen, not part of a series.
The Snow Leopard is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
