Faber announces The Rise of the Ultra Runners

Guardian Faber is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance by award-winning author Adharanand Finn. Guardian Faber acquired UK & Commonwealth rights plus Canada and EU from Oli Munson at A.M. Heath and will publish in May 2019.

The Rise of the Ultra Runners is an electrifying and inspiring account of one of the toughest sports in the world. Once the reserve of only the most hardcore enthusiasts, ultra running is now a thriving global industry, with hundreds of thousands of competitors each year. But is the rise of this most brutal and challenging sport – with races that extend into hundreds of miles – an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness?

In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, Adharanand Finn travels to the heart of the sport to investigate the reasons behind its rise, and to discover what it takes to be an ultra runner. Through encounters with the extreme and colourful characters of the ultramarathon world, and his own experiences of running ultras everywhere from the deserts of Oman to the Rocky Mountains, Finn offers a fascinating account of people testing the boundaries of human endeavour.

Commissioning Editor, Fred Baty said: ‘I couldn’t be more pleased to be working with Adharanand on The Rise of the Ultra Runners. It’s an absolutely exhilarating account of the global ultramarathon phenomenon, perfect both for committed runners and those like me who are more than happy to live vicariously through the staggering athletic exploits of others.’

Adharanand Finn said: ‘This book is a journalistic and personal journey into the crazy world of ultra running. Of course, I never do things the easy way, and so I have huffed and puffed and hallucinated through thousands of miles, across crazy landscapes, often for days without stopping, to get the inside story on why this is one of the world’s fastest growing sports. What I learned out there on the trails, about inner strength, companionship and the expandable limits of human endurance is at the heart of this book’

Adharanand Finn is the author of Running with the Kenyans (2012) and The Way of the Runner (2015). The first of these was the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year, won Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book Award. He is a journalist at the Guardian and also writes regularly for the Financial Times, the Independent, Runner’s World, Men’s Health and many others. @adharanand