Books by Norman Ollestad

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival

by Norman Ollestad

Dad Said

Ollestad, we can do it all. . . .

Why do you make me do this?

Because it's beautiful when it all comes together.

I don't think it's ever beautiful.

One day.

Never.

We'll see, my father said. Vamanos.

From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. While his friends were riding bikes, playing ball, and going to birthday parties, young Norman was whisked away in pursuit of wild and demanding adventures. Yet it were these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared "Boy Wonder," as his father called him, to become a fearless champion--and ultimately saved his life.

Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father's girlfriend, and the pilot crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains and was suspended at 8,200 feet, engulfed in a blizzard. "Dad and I were a team, and he was Superman," Ollestad writes. But now Norman's father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.

Set amid the spontaneous, uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, this riveting memoir, written in crisp Hemingwayesque prose, recalls Ollestad's childhood and the magnetic man whose determination and love infuriated and inspired him--and also taught him to overcome the indomitable. As it illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, Ollestad's powerful and unforgettable true story offers remarkable insight for us all.

Crazy for the Storm One Color One Size

by Norman Ollestad

Destined to stand with other classic true stories of man against nature—Into Thin Air and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm—Crazy for the Storm is a literary triumph.
Norman Olstead's New York Times bestselling memoir is the story of the harrowing plane crash the author miraculously survived at age eleven, framed by the moving tale of his complicated relationship with his charismatic, adrenaline-addicted father.
“A heart-stopping story beautifully told….Norman Olstead has written a book that may well be read for generations.” —Russell Banks
“Breathtaking....Crazy for the Storm will keep you up late into the night.” —Washington Post Book World

French Girl with Mother: A Novel

by Norman Ollestad

"Finely wrought; Ollestad builds a delicate tension between the characters, exposing their raw desire and exploring the concept of artistic inspiration...A quietly tense and absorbing read." —Kirkus

French Girl with Mother is a provocative, propulsive thriller that marries the spirit of James Salter with a hint of Patricia Highsmith and the velocity of The Art Forger.

Nathan is a young artist traveling across Europe in search of the emotional fire that has been missing from his work. He’s been deemed by his mentors and critics as technically skillful but uninspired —criticisms he fears to be true. On a Paris street, he witnesses the volatile breakup of a young French woman and her beau. Nathan pursues a meeting with the woman and it very quickly becomes evident that her provocative charisma and scathing beauty just may conjure the electricity he has been seeking for his work. So when the woman invites him to her parents' crumbling, centuries-old chateau in the country to allow him to sketch her, he accepts, knowing that this proposition is both ill advised and thrilling.

Once enveloped by this isolated estate, a door opens to a world Nathan is not prepared for. The arrival of the young woman’s family—her mother, a volatile, voracious former ballerina, her father, a mysterious businessman with secrets of his own, and her uncle, who might be trafficking in art forgeries.

French Girl with Mother: A Novel

by Norman Ollestad

"Finely wrought; Ollestad builds a delicate tension between the characters, exposing their raw desire and exploring the concept of artistic inspiration...A quietly tense and absorbing read." —Kirkus

French Girl with Mother is a provocative, propulsive thriller that marries the spirit of James Salter with a hint of Patricia Highsmith and the velocity of The Art Forger.

Nathan is a young artist traveling across Europe in search of the emotional fire that has been missing from his work. He’s been deemed by his mentors and critics as technically skillful but uninspired —criticisms he fears to be true. On a Paris street, he witnesses the volatile breakup of a young French woman and her beau. Nathan pursues a meeting with the woman and it very quickly becomes evident that her provocative charisma and scathing beauty just may conjure the electricity he has been seeking for his work. So when the woman invites him to her parents' crumbling, centuries-old chateau in the country to allow him to sketch her, he accepts, knowing that this proposition is both ill advised and thrilling.

Once enveloped by this isolated estate, a door opens to a world Nathan is not prepared for. The arrival of the young woman’s family—her mother, a volatile, voracious former ballerina, her father, a mysterious businessman with secrets of his own, and her uncle, who might be trafficking in art forgeries.

Sole Survivor

by Norman Ollestad, Brendan Kiely

“Sole Survivor is an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride right from page one. A real-life Hatchet for a new generation. You gotta read it to believe it!” —Alan Gratz, New York Times–bestselling author of Refugee and Heroes

“Inspirational, propulsive, and unforgettable. This one leaves a mark.” —Lamar Giles, author of The Getaway and Ruin Road

This riveting true story from two New York Times–bestselling authors chronicles how a California sixth grader survived a deadly mountainside plane crash during a snowstorm.

Eleven-year-old Norman Ollestad is no stranger to extreme situations. Whether it’s surfing big swells off Topanga Beach or skiing in a blizzard, he has braved one adrenaline-rush adventure after another, pushed by his thrill-seeking father to realize that “anything’s possible.” And with Dad by his side, sometimes Norman believes him.

That motto is put to the ultimate test when the small plane Norman and his dad are aboard is engulfed by a snowstorm and crashes in the San Gabriel Mountains—with deadly consequences. Struggling in and out of lucidity, haunted by the voices and memories from difficult moments in his past, Norman must decide what to do while trapped eight thousand feet above sea level, facing dangers unlike any he has encountered before.

Inspired by the harrowing true childhood experience of author Norman Ollestad, this astonishing, action-packed story, co-written with Brendan Kiely, is about fear, survival, and the complicated forces—and people—that shape us. Fast-paced and unputdownable, Sole Survivor is the perfect read for fans of Dusti Bowling’s The Canyon’s Edge, Megan E. Freeman’s Alone, and the I Survived series.