Book of the week: Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth by James M. Tabor

Tabor's tale of adventure tracks two teams, on opposite sides of the world, as each set outs to discover the depths of two enormous cave systems, one in southern Mexico and one on the edge of the Black Sea. 

(Random House, 304 pages, $26)

There are many ways to die in a cave, said Alexandra Alter and Cynthia Crossen in The Wall Street Journal. Mountain climbers die in only about four ways, according to author James Tabor’s calculations, but the less-celebrated adventurers who explore the world’s deepest holes can lose their lives in more than 50. Often operating in total darkness, they risk deadly falls and avalanches. They can also succumb to lethal microbes, poisonous gas, drowning, electrocution, rabid bats, or a bout of darkness-induced madness known as “the Rapture”—which Tabor likens to “a panic attack on meth.” Such were the dangers confronted in 2004 by two teams, on opposite sides of the world, as they set out on simultaneous attempts to plumb the planet more deeply than anyone before.

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