Starbucks Chooses Crazy for the Storm as Next Featured Book

Posted on May 19, 2009

Starbucks has selected Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival, by Norman Ollestad as its next featured book. The book tells the story of a plane crash in which Norman Ollestad, now 41, was the only survivor at the age of 11. The plane crashed into a mountain while a blizzard was going on. His terrifying physical and psychological descent down the mountain is chronicled in the book.

"Very rarely does a book like Crazy for the Storm come along," said Daniel Halpern, President and Publisher of Ecco. "I think most everyone in publishing recognized this the moment the book was submitted last summer. It's a remarkable story, as much a thriller as a memoir. Beyond the immediate rush of entering this dramatic autobiographical narrative, something amazing begins to emerge from the violence and passion of eleven year old Ollestad's life. What the book ultimately reveals is a genuinely tender relationship between a boy and his father. I'm ecstatic that the good people at Starbucks not only saw the beauty and importance of this book, but committed to it from the very beginning."

Ollestad said "I always knew that one day I would write about the airplane crash. It wasn't until 27 years later that I felt ready. I was driving along Highway 395 to Mammoth Ski Resort with my six-year-old son, Noah, and he began asking questions about me driving to Mammoth with my father. By the end on the five-hour drive I had chronicled me and Dad's skiing and surfing exploits, and much of the airplane crash ordeal for Noah. I wanted to demystify the ordeal so that he would understand that reaching deep into yourself to overcome something seemingly indomitable was accessible to everyone, especially him."

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival will be published on June 2, 2009 by Ecco and would make a great Father's Day gift.