<b>From Susan Casey, bestselling author of <i>The Devil&rsquo;s Teeth</i>, an astonishing book about colossal,&#160; ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. </b><br><br>For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dis&shy;missed these stories&mdash;waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet&rsquo;s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea&mdash;including several that approached 100 feet.<br><br>As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean&rsquo;s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of peo&shy;ple as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100&shy;-foot wave.<br><br>In this mesmerizing account, the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists&rsquo; urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of waves&mdash;from the tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1,740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast.<br><br>Like Jon Krakauer&rsquo;s <i>Into Thin Air, The Wave </i>brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>