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  • Desert Solitaire

  • A Season in the Wilderness
  • By: Edward Abbey
  • Narrated by: Michael Kramer
  • Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (33 ratings)

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Desert Solitaire cover art

Desert Solitaire

By: Edward Abbey
Narrated by: Michael Kramer
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

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Publisher's Summary

When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah. This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form -- the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry.

Abbey's observations and challenges remain as relevant now as the day he wrote them. Today, Desert Solitaire asks if any of our incalculable natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again.

©1968 Edward Abbey (P)2011 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Like a ride on a bucking bronco . . . rough, tough, combative. The author is a rebel and an eloquent loner. His is a passionately felt, deeply poetic book . . . set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty." ( The New York Times Book Review)

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Walk in the wild side

Edward Abbey's jaunts into the wilderness and critique of modern civilisation, especially industrial tourism are both entertaining, thought provoking and inspiring - poetic yet pragmatic, graceful yet merciless, a true must read.

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