WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY 2016 Surfing only looks like a sport. To devotees, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a mental & physical study, a passionate way of life. William Finnegan first started surfing as a young boy in California & Hawaii. Barbarian Days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling the world chasing waves through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa, Peru & beyond. Finnegan describes the edgy yet enduring brotherhood forged among the swell of the surf; & recalling his own apprenticeship to the world`s most famous & challenging waves, he considers the intense relationship formed between man, board & water. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, a social history, an extraordinary exploration of one man`s gradual mastering of an exacting & little-understood art. It is a memoir of dangerous obsession & enchantment.