Climbing the mountain

With the simple power and astonishing candor that made his 1988 autobiography, The Ragman's Son, a bestseller, Kirk Douglas now shares his quest for spirituality and Jewish identity - and his heroic fight to cover some crippling injuries and a devastating stroke.

With the narrative skill that has made him a successful novelist, Kirk Douglas not only takes the reader through his own near-death experience but tells the story of his stubborn struggle to make sense of his own life, to come to terms with the reality of death, and to answer the "big questions" that eventually confront us all: What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Who is God?