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Being a Beast

By: Charles Foster
Narrated by: Jot Davies
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Publisher's Summary

Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like to be a beast: a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, a swift. What it was really like. And through knowing what it was like, he wanted to get down and grapple with the beast in us all.

So he tried it out; he lived life as a badger for six weeks, sleeping in a dirt hole and eating earthworms. He came face to face with shrimps as he lived like an otter, and he spent hours curled up in a back garden in East London and rooting in bins like an urban fox.

A passionate naturalist, Foster realises that every creature creates a different world in its brain and lives in that world. As humans, we share sensory outputs, lights, smells and sound, but trying to explore what it is actually like to live in another of these worlds, belonging to another species, is a fascinating and unique neuroscientific challenge. For Foster it is also a literary challenge.

Looking at what science can tell us about what happens in a fox's or badger's brain when it picks up a scent, he then uses this to imagine their world for us, to write it through their eyes, or, rather, through the eyes of Charles the beast.

An intimate look at the life of animals, neuroscience, psychology, nature writing, memoir and more, it is a journey of extraordinary thrills and surprises, containing wonderful moments of humour and joy but also providing important lessons for all of us who share life on this precious planet.

©2016 Charles Foster (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Being a Beast

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Lost my self in this

Throughly revelled in listening to this book. I lost my self in the world of trying to be another beast. I find myself wanting to do what the author wants to do, without the physical endurance nor existential obsession that the author suffers, but I feel privileged to listen to the discoveries that come full circle to realisations of being a better human that I learn from. The narrator’s voice was convincing and inviting so much so that I had to double check it wasn’t the author’s voice.

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Excellent reading, brilliant writing

I loved this concept, the poetic yet science based writing and the humour. If you love the natural world then I reccommend this whole heartedly.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.