Captain Phil Harris

A portrait of the late star of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch reveals his high-risk private life of tempestuous affairs, drug-fueled parties and motorcycle riding as well as his virtues as a devoted friend, loving father and steadfast captain. 50,000 first printing.

The electrifying behind-the-scenes story of the late Deadliest Catch star, from his own two sons. Prior to his untimely death in 2010, Captain Phil Harris was a star of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, the hit show that follows the exhilarating lives of Alaskan crab fishermen as they brave the vicious Bering Sea. He led his crew through hurricane-force winds and fourstory- high waves, hauling in millions of pounds of crab and raking in millions of dollars. Phil worked hard, but he played even harder. His life on shore—from his rebellious days to his tempestuous marriages, from his addictive habits to his fundamental American success story—could serve as a reality show in itself. He lived his life at Mach speed: the blitz of crab season, the six-figure paydays, the thunderous motorcycles, and the drug-fueled parties. High-speed chases and all-night blackjack binges were par for the course. But as wild as Phil could be, he was always openhearted and infectiously friendly. He was a devoted friend, a loving father, a steadfast captain, and a hero to audiences across America and around the world. His death in 2010, the result of stroke and heart failure at the age of fifty-three, left a hole in the hearts of millions. In this exclusive authorized biography, Phil’s two surviving sons, Josh and Jake Harris, team up with bestselling author Steve Springer and coauthor Blake Chavez to share the thrilling story of Phil’s remarkable life.

The story of two brothers, Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, who are maverick fisherman on the Bering Sea. They share the skippering duties on board their family-operated vessel, the Time Bandit. They are totally outrageous characters, taking on what is known to be the most dangerous job in the world. The Bering Sea is dangerous and mercurial and can steal years from a fisherman's life and Time Bandit is the name of the fishing vessel the brothers use to hook the alaskan King Crabs. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves 60ft high, the perils of 1000lb steel crab traps thrown about by the wind and the constant menace of open water. The details of their childhood make you wonder how they ever lived past the age of ten! This amazing story, co-written with Malcolm MacPherson, brings to life the heart-in-your-throat existence of the Hillstrand brothers.

As featured on Deadliest Catch A fourth generation fisherman, Jake Anderson grew up in the rich fishing environment of Anacortes, Washington. At age seventeen, Jake began salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and by the age of twenty-five he was crab fishing in the heart of the Bering Sea. Soon after, Jake became a deckhand on the F/V Northwestern and joined the popular television series Deadliest Catch. As an integral part of the show, Jake is known for his hardworking nature that has allowed him to evolve from greenhorn to licensed captain. Aside from fishing, Jake has a harrowing story that has yet to be told. As an avid skateboarder, Jake aspired to become a professional until he was sidelined by injury, addiction, and homelessness. After relentlessly battling back, he was then confronted with the untimely losses of his sister, father, and mentor, Phil Harris. But with depth and maturity, Jake persevered. In his debut book, Relapse, Jake serves as an inspiration as he candidly shares his private journey to overcome tragedy.

Every Alaskan king crab season, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Sons of a hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman, and born with brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn’t imagine a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of mighty king crabs waiting to be pulled from the ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves sixty feet high, the perils of thousand-pound steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind, and the constant menace of the open, hungry water—epitomized in the chorus of a haunting sailors’ sing-along: “Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware.” By turns raucous and reflective, exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself—a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

In their own words, the fearless men you've seen on Discovery Channel's Deadliest catch describe the majesty, bravery, and terror they've witnessed-- in true and personal tales that go beyond the view of TV cameras.

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! In the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Linda Greenlaw comes Captain Sig Hansen's rags-to-riches epic of his immigrant family's struggle against deadly Alaskan seas, freezing shipwrecks, and dangerously brutal conditions to achieve the American Dream Sig Hansen has been a star of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch from the pilot to the present. Seen in over 150 countries, the show attracts more than 49 million viewers per season, making it one of the most successful series in the history of cable TV. With its daredevil camera work, unpredictably dangerous weather, and a setting as unforgivable and unforgettable as the frigid Bering Sea, The Deadliest Catch is unlike anything else on television. But the weatherworn fishermen of the fishing vessel Northwestern have stories that don't come through on TV. For Sig Hansen and his brothers, commercial fishing is as much a part of their Norwegian heritage as their names. Descendants of the Vikings who roamed and ruled the northern seas for centuries, the Hansens' connection to the sea stretches from Alaska to Seattle and all the way to Norway. And after twenty years as a skipper on the commercial fishing vessel the Northwestern--which was his father's before him--Sig has lived to tell the tales. To be a successful fisherman, you need to be a mechanic, navigator, welder, painter, carpenter, and sometimes, a firefighter. To be a successful fisherman year after year, you need to be a survivor. This is the story of a family of survivors; part memoir and part adventure tale, North by Northwestern brings readers on deck, into the dockside bars and into the history of a family with a common destiny. Built around a gripping tale of a deadly shipwreck like The Perfect Storm, North By Northwestern is the multi-generational tale of the Hansen family, a clan of tough Norwegian-American fishermen who, through the popularity of The Deadliest Catch, have become modern folk-heroes.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. Appearing in paperback for the first time—with twenty arresting new photos and an extensive Q&A with the author—Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award “Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] one-in-a-billion story . . . designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.”—New York “Staggering . . . mesmerizing . . . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”—People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.”—The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . . . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.”—The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . . . incredible . . . [Hillenbrand] has crafted another masterful blend of sports, history and overcoming terrific odds; this is biography taken to the nth degree, a chronicle of a remarkable life lived through extraordinary times.”—The Dallas Morning News “An astonishing testament to the superhuman power of tenacity.”—Entertainment Weekly “A tale of triumph and redemption . . . astonishingly detailed.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[A] masterfully told true story . . . nothing less than a marvel.”—Washingtonian “[Hillenbrand tells this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.”—Time “Hillenbrand [is] one of our best writers of narrative history. You don’t have to be a sports fan or a war-history buff to devour this book—you just have to love great storytelling.”—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks