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Harrowing and morbidly fascinating, Last Breath examines the physiological, psychological and emotional stages humans endure at the brink of death. Will they survive or will they succumb? Stark describes in chilling detail exactly what goes through the mind of a rock climber as he plummets from a 50-foot-high cliff. He puts us in the body of a kayaker tumbling helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. He chronicles the physical disintegration of a young woman suffering cerebral edema on the 26,504-foot summit of Nepal's Annapurna. These are among the dire situations that Stark transforms into riveting accounts of how our bodies react to trauma, how reflexes and instinct compel us to fight back, and what happens when we lose the battle. In this fascinating, informative book, Stark reveals just what we're getting into when we choose to live--and die--at the extremes of endurance.