A Paradise Built in Hell cover art

A Paradise Built in Hell

The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Paradise Built in Hell

By: Rebecca Solnit
Narrated by: Emily Beresford
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.77

Buy Now for £15.77

About this listen

The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become - one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.

©2009 Rebecca Solnit (P)2014 Audible Inc. Disaster Relief Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Social Sciences Sociology Socialism Social justice

Critic reviews

"The freshest, deepest, most optimistic account of human nature I've come across in years." (Bill McKibben)
All stars
Most relevant
The book was fantastic and brought together a different and more positive view of the world. The reader was very strong, but I think she got a bit too much with the accents- was a bit embarrassing. Great read though.

Great book, accents were a bit much.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Paradise Built in Hell?

The descriptions of the aftermath of Katrina were shocking to a non-American and something I was surprised to hear. The basic failures of the government during this time was something that I was aware of but the details were grisly and something I won't forget, and nor should I.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The entirety of the book was filled with moving encounters of underrepresented examples of humans at their best in the worst possible scenarios. I certainly recommend it to those who have lost their faith in the people of the modern world.

Similar to Shock Doctrine but from another angle

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book gives examples of how in disaster community matters most and how bureaucratic institutions usually harm these communities.

The book eloquently explains how for the elite and those in charge protecting property is often what is most important in a crisis, whereas ordinary people seek to save each other.

Well worth a listen

Community not bureaucracy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A few nice ideas utterly obliterated by appallingly florid prose, uncritical and unreflective celebration of pretty much any expressions of revolution (and interesting and important and often more complex topic than as represented here) as a largely irrelevant window into the ostensible theme of community resilience in the face of disaster, and on the audiobook some frankly astonishing and inappropriate foreign accented english affected by the narrator whenever someone is quoted verbatim.

This could have been a decent book - a broader horizoned take on the themes explored in Klinenberg’s brilliant study of the Chicago heatwave. Instead you get an annoying and self-sabotaging exercise in self indulgent rhetoric, only feebly supported by useful evidence, and - on the audiobook - rendered laughable by the ill-judged narration. What were they thinking?

Genuinely terrible and at times embarrassing failure to competently explore what could have been a useful and important book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is very American centric which makes it a lot less interesting than it could have been. I listened to the first couple of hours and it takes too long to say anything so I shall ask for a refund.
The narrator’s performance is dull too.

Boring. Too American.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews