Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain, and the Search for a Hidden Past

Into the Wild  meets  Born to Run  meets  The Stranger in the Woods  in a fascinating true story of a marathon-running hermit and a journalist’s quest to solve the mystery at the core of the enigmatic man’s existence When journalist Brett Popplewell first heard about Dag Aabye, an aging former stuntman who lived alone inside a school bus on a mountain, running day and night through blizzards and heat waves, he was intrigued and bewildered. Captivated by the seemingly implausible tale of a wild super-athlete aging more slowly than the rest of us, he was determined to meet the apocryphal white-haired man who was pushing the boundaries of the human mind and body beyond what anyone could dream was possible. What Popplewell witnessed on a secluded mountain perch led him on a six-year odyssey to uncover the true story of the 81-year-old man.  Outsider  takes readers on a remarkable journey from Nazi-occupied Norway to Argentina and British Columbia. The book chronicles how a child born under mysterious circumstances during World War II finds his way onto the big screen in  Goldfinger , is heralded as the world’s first extreme skier, and is later driven into the wilderness. Both joyful and tragic , Outsider presents a bold challenge to our notions of aging, belonging and human accomplishment.