Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (Pan, £5.99 in UK)

In April 1992 Chris McCandless hitch-hiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness. A college kid from a well-to-do family, he had given all his savings to charity, abandoned his car and burned all the money he had in his wallet. Four months later his decomposed body was found by hunters: he had starved to death. But was McCandless a manic depressive intent on suicide, or simply an arrogant city boy who had underestimated the difficulty of carving a living from the unforgiving landscape of the north? In this fascinating study Krakauer retraces the boy's steps and ends up on a voyage, not just across one of the earth's bleakest places, but into the darkest recesses of human nature.