Super Short Summary

Released in 2007, Roland Smith’s novel Peak is the story of a teenager—whose name is Peak—who has a lot of mountains to climb, both metaphorical and literal. When he is fourteen, Peak climbs a skyscraper in New York to place his tag on it: a spray-painted small, blue mountain. He is caught and arrested. As he waits for a hearing, another boy tries to emulate him by scaling a building and falls to his death. Peak’s estranged father Josh appears at the last moment with bail money and a plan to take him to Thailand. In Bangkok, Josh surprises Peak with an attempt to summit Mount Everest, aiming to make Peak the youngest climber to achieve this. As the climb unfolds, Peak’s feelings toward his father become complex, culminating in a decision to prioritize another climber's success over his own.