Paths Of Glory by Jeffrey Archer

Paths Of Glory is a fiction novel inspired by a true story. It speaks about the story of George Mallory, a British mountaineer, who was an integral part of the first three expeditions to climb Mount Everest in the early 1900s. In 1924, Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to scale the Himalayas using assisted oxygen. They were last seen on June 8th, 1924, about 600 feet from the top, until Mallory’s frozen body was discovered in 1999. Officially, there was no evidence that the duo climbed the peak successfully, but here’s where it gets intriguing. Mallory claimed to have only two great loves, Mt. Everest, and his wife Ruth. He had promised that, in the event of him successfully climbing the peak, he would leave a photograph of his wife there to commemorate the occasion. However, when his surprisingly well-preserved body was discovered, there was no photograph of Ruth on him. Could they have been the first people to conquer Mt. Everest, a solid thirty years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were credited to be the first people to scale Mt. Everest in 1953? The highly controversial content of this novel has been extracted from personal letters written by Mallory to his wife and the history of the early 1900s. This compelling book culminates with an open ending. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether Mallory was worthy of being recognized as the first man ever to conquer Mt. Everest.