Kon-Tiki

Now a major motion picture, Kon-Tiki is Thor Heyerdahl's account of his extraordinary three-month voyage across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands on a raft made from balsa wood.
Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race that traveled across the ocean thousands of miles east by drifting with the wind patterns. He decided to prove his theory by building a boat using the materials that would have been available to those pre-Columbian sailors and duplicating their legendary voyage.
On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a raft built from balsa wood, bamboo, and hemp. After three months and 4,300 nautical miles on the open sea they sighted land—the Polynesian island of Puka Puka.
Translated into sixty-five languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage—a magnificent saga of men against the sea.

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer, adventurer, and writer. Born in 1914, he became famous for his daring 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition. He died in Italy in 2002.