“At once memoir, confession, travel book and thriller, David Vann's A Mile Down is so vivid
and intense you will dread to see it end…. The book is a testimony of passion and courage in
deadly storms and scarier calms, of a man wrestling with his ghosts and gifts in the very shadow of
paradise.”
               --Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek and Brave Enemies

       “A Mile Down would be a cautionary tale for anyone who dreams of the freedom of the high
seas--if only it wasn't so damn exciting.”
               --Stewart O’Nan, co-author with Stephen King of Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox
Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season and author of The Night Country

       “A Mile Down is pure adrenaline.  Vann by all rights should have died at sea, and yet he’s
lived to tell about it.  But the thrill comes also from other kinds of risk—risk of repeating his father’s
suicide, risk of financial disaster, risk of prosecution, risk of losing everything including who he
believes himself to be.  This story won’t let you go, and the writing is perfect.  It never gets in the
way, but on reflection you realize that even the most unexpected things appeared uncommonly
beautiful.”
               --Melanie Thernstrom, author of The Dead Girl and Halfway Heaven

       “Riveting, heartbreaking, and redemptive…A Mile Down is a memoir as engaging as the most
 compelling of novels….  This is an immensely moving and exciting book -- it's as if one of the
 heroes of The Perfect Storm had lived to write his memoirs.”
               --Julie Hilden, author of 3 and The Bad Daughter

           “A Mile Down is far more than a tale of ruin at sea.  It’s a story, also, of desire and shame, of
    the struggle to escape our histories and know our dreams.  Vann writes that “A life can be like a
    work of art, constantly melted away and reshaped,” and he shows us this reshaping, this rebirth
    of hope from despair and ruin, so powerfully I couldn’t put the book down.  You have to read this
    book, even if you care nothing about sailing or the sea.  Just read it.”
                  --Lalita Tademy, author of Cane River

          “A Mile Down is superbly crafted.  As in the great epics, the protagonist faces an unrelenting
    crush of disasters, bad luck, and ill will yet picks himself up over and over to carry on.  And what
    shapes this struggle is the question of whether he is persisting through his own will or through
    obedience to a dead father who had similar struggles at sea.  David Vann has created a tale of
    hubris and endurance that is both exciting and beautifully written.”  
                  --Keith Scribner, author of The Goodlife and Miracle Girl

          “A Mile Down is a riveting and truthful account of a good man’s attempt to stay afloat on
    treacherous waters. This book reminded me of Robert Stone’s Outerbridge Reach, or John
    Casey’s Spartina, but in many ways Vann’s odyssey is more unforgettable. The fact that Vann
    lived to tell it is an achievement in itself.”
                  --Tom Barbash, author of The Last Good Chance and On Top of the World: Cantor
    Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss &Renewal

        “Mandatory reading for anyone who’s ever flirted with thoughts of a life spent at sea.”
               --A. Manette Ansay, author of Vinegar Hill and Midnight Champagne

            "David Vann's book is a story both about life and sailing.  On any long offshore passage
    there are emotional highs and lows, good weather and bad, successes and frustrations.  It turns
    out that life is similar.  Everybody will enjoy David's beautifully written book; sailors will learn about
    life and non-sailors will better understand the lure of the sea and boats."
                  --Stan Honey, Navigator for Pyewacket, Cheyenne, ABNAmro
Author David Vann
Advance Praise for A Mile Down