Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

Words by

Evelyn O'Doherty

A Deeply Immersive Surf Memoir from the Master Storyteller

If you've heard a surfer talk about it, then you know Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is more than just another memoir—it’s a full-throttle deep dive into the life of a man utterly captivated by the raw edge of surfing. Written by William Finnegan, acclaimed journalist and longtime writer for The New Yorker, this is his reluctant story of his lifelong obsession. Finnegan won his first Pulitzer Prize for this compelling autobiography, a story he almost didn't write because he didn't feel it was 'important enough'.

While to the uninitiated, surfing may look like just another sport; however, to those who truly live it, as Finnegan does, it’s a calling—equal parts artistic expression, addiction, and philosophical quest.

Raised between California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing at a young age. His search for the perfect wave became a personal odyssey—carrying him across oceans to the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, and Africa. Along the way, this bookish kid evolved into an intrepid traveler, renowned war correspondent, and one of America’s most respected writers.

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life takes readers far beyond the usual surf stories. With Finnegan's elegant and lyrical writing, we are swept into the raw, tightly-knit world of surfers, bound together by shared danger and deep trust. Finnegan writes with both the analytical eye of a journalist and the pulse-pounding immediacy of someone who has ridden towering, lethal waves.

He recounts wild chapters from his youth—like dropping acid before paddling into Maui’s Honolua Bay, or discovering a near-mythical wave while camping on a deserted island in Fiji. There's style and impact to every anecdote: from navigating racial tensions in a Honolulu high school gang to unpacking village life in Samoa, tracking sexual politics in Tonga, and dodging disease and corruption in Indonesia.

This is a tale about surfing —but it is also about close friendships, rebellion, danger, discovery, and the search for meaning in a world gone mad. In it, whether he's surfing icy Long Island swells in Montauk or chasing remote breaks in Madagascar, Finnegan writes with breathtaking clarity and lyrical force.

Barbarian Days is the ultimate surf adventure story. It is a love letter to ocean swells around the world, plus a profound meditation on how a wave breaks, entry and exit points, and the courage it takes to paddle out into the unknown. You don’t need to surf to be pulled under its spell—you just need to open the first page.

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