What a venturesome life Michael Ghiglieri has lived - most of it in or on water - and what a gorgeous rhapsody to rivers he's written!" - Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea

Veteran wilderness guide Michael P. Ghiglieri takes you into the unknown-among white-water rapids, crocodiles, hippos, gorillas, lions, and impossible waterfalls. His riveting memoir not only serves up true high adventure, it also presents the ecology, natural history, conservation (or the lack of it), and exploration history of nine far-flung wilderness regions across the globe.

Into the Unknown reveals what the natural world looks like through a professional's eyes during "adventure" travel, when things start sliding toward the edge. This insider memoir recounts ten sagas of extreme expeditions into Earth's most amazing wilderness regions to illustrate their realities, science, allure, history, risks to life and limb, and ultimate fates. Many of these regions have now vanished to "progress." Others are imperiled. Only a few are protected. But all are, or were, places where exotic beauty and danger are inseparable.