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Wild

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Wild

By: Cheryl Strayed
Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe and built her back up again. At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. After her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than an idea: vague, outlandish, and full of promise. But it was a promise of piecing together a life that had come undone. Strayed faces rattlesnakes and bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and intense loneliness of the trail.

Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

©2012 Cheryl Strayed (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Grief & Loss Personal Development Women Hiking Inspiring Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Funny
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Editor reviews

An unforgettable journey of self-discovery, Wild is written by international best-selling author Cheryl Strayed and is a complete and unabridged audiobook memoir with a powerful narration by talented voice-artist Laurel Lefkow. Now also a hugely successful film starring Reece Witherspoon. Audible listeners follow the heartbreaking true story of a young woman who experiences intense grief and a life undone, only to rediscover herself as she forges ahead on a seemingly impossible solo journey across the American wilderness. This is a story that will stay with you long after the final word.
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I have to start this review by admitting that this book was a total impulse buy for me, based more on interest generated by the many posters on the London Underground promoting the spin-off film starring Reece Witherspoon. It has turned out to be one of the best audiobooks I’ve bought for years.

Following the death of her mother the author finds her life and her family unravelling, and to say she goes a tad off-the-rails would be an understatement. After a few years of this destructive freefall Cheryl decides she must make a change, and a chance encounter with a guide book on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) stirs her interest and she sets about planning a solo hike that will take her over 3 months, and hopefully enable her to move on from her recent traumas.

And you are there at every step, practically walking alongside the author as she talks of the events that led her to be here, a woman alone in the wilderness, miles away from anywhere or anybody. She talks of her childhood, her family’s early struggles, her violent and unstable biological father and, after he had left them, the loving, caring man who became her step-father. The book does a first-class job of being able to talk aloud about the past whilst keeping the listener in the present, with the sights, sounds and grandeur that such an epic trek would entail. You are right there with her at every turn of the trail, savouring every meal, dressing every blister, feeling palpable frustration at every wrong turn when the trail becomes overgrown or disappears altogether. But you will also smile warmly at the kindness of the people you will meet on the trail, their openness and generosity toward a perfect stranger.

Recognition must also go to narrator Laurel Lefkow who does a first-class job; energetic and always engaging, she brings the whole story to life.

At the time of writing I’m still only midway through the second-half of the book, but am totally hooked, and look forward to my daily commute just so I can pull on the headphones and continue my hike through the woods.

An exceptional book, and very highly recommended.

An Exceptional Story

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Great narrator, the whole thing made me feel like I was Sheryl, I couldn't stop listening, just wanted to know what happened next!

An Inspiration

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I laughed, I cried, I took a days holiday to finish it, completely wonderful. If you are listening to it on the beach don't forget the tissues

Utterly fabulous

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Excellent narration, superbly recanted story. I found this very moving and have a great admiration for the author.

Loved It!

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This is the second time I've read this book, the first first time I actually 'read' it, and it was a couple of years after my mum had died and I found Cheryl's emotional ups and downs after her mother's death familiar. It's really interesting listening to it again years on and recognise those feelings, remembering them from my grief and knowing that although I am now in a different place, they were and still are valid and important.

I also found again her 'journey' of growing and changing and becoming more comfortable with who she is incredibly inspiring and it have me a jolt out of the mental rut I'd got myself into.

I will definitely be coming back to listen to this book again and I would highly recommend it.

Incredibly moving and inspiring

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