Wild by Nature

From Siberia to Australia, Three Years Alone in the Wilderness on Foot

By: Sarah Marquis, Stephanie Hellert - Translator

Narrated by: Emily Lawrence

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

One woman.

Ten thousand miles on foot.

Six countries.

Eight pairs of hiking boots.

Three thousand cups of tea.

One thousand days and nights.

"The only way to survive three years of walking was to embrace the moment of now." - from Wild by Nature

Not since Cheryl Strayed gifted us with her adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail in her memoir, Wild, has there been such a powerful epic adventure by a woman alone. In Wild by Nature, National Geographic explorer Sarah Marquis takes you on the trail of her 10,000-mile solo hike across the remote Gobi desert from Siberia to Thailand, at which point she was transported by boat to complete the hike at her favorite tree in Australia.

Against nearly insurmountable odds and relying on hunting and her own wits, Sarah Marquis survived the Mafia, drug dealers, thieves on horseback who harassed her tent every night for weeks, temperatures from subzero to scorching, life-threatening wildlife, a dengue fever delirium in the Laos jungle, tropic ringworm in northern Thailand, dehydration, and a life-threatening abscess.

This is an incredible story of adventure, human ingenuity, persistence, and resilience that shows firsthand what it is to adventure as a woman in the most dangerous of circumstance, what it is to be truly alone in the wild, and why someone would challenge themselves with an expedition others would call crazy. For Marquis, her story is about freedom, being alive and wild by nature.

Cover design by Danielle Christoper

©2014 Sarah Marquis (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Interesting

I love a good explorer story. Couldn’t get used to the narration. A bit monotonous for me. The story was interesting but didn’t find it hugely entertaining. Still worth a listen if you love adventures.

A good book but .....read before purchasing

What did you like best about Wild by Nature? What did you like least?

First off, it is a good read/listen. If you are looking for a travelogue by someone like yourself, an average Joe that decided it was time to do something exciting and leave their life to pursue some type of adventure, you will be disappointed. The author is a professional traveler. I got the sense that it was written from the perspective of someone that, although she has a love of travel, does it because it is her profession. She has sponsors and and a person to run her expedition. There seems to be no growing pains to tackle during the trip and when things get hairy, she was extracted from where she was and taken to safety. The comfort of knowing that a bad tooth in Mongolia can be taken care of with a call to a sponsor who will wish you away to Japan for 6 weeks makes the stress of such a trip a lot easier. Once I got past the underlying premise of the book, it was a fairly good story. The time line seemed a bit disjointed due to the dates not being announced prior to the chapters.

What does Emily Lawrence bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nice mellow voice. A slight accent but read the story well.

Could you see Wild by Nature being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

This is not Wild by Cheryl Strayed or Walk in the Woods by Bryson or any trekking book by authors a little out of their elements. If you are OK with that, get this book.

Highly recommend

This book is so inspiring, I cried and laughed and raves to my family and friends about how moving her story is. 12/10

Boring

Nothing interesting over and over. She walks, she walks, she walks. Hardly learn anything about the cultures and people she encounters. Waste of time. Quit half way through.

I wanted to like it - really I did

Would you try another book from Sarah Marquis and Stephanie Hellert - Translator and/or Emily Lawrence?

Probably not

What could Sarah Marquis and Stephanie Hellert - Translator have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

It read too much like a dry, unemotional journal where she took her notes from her travels and just put them in sentence form. I'm not sure how it could have been changed to make it more enjoyable. It just seemed "off" overall to me.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Emily Lawrence?

Anyone but her. I did not like her monotone breathiness at all. It made me felt completely detached from the experiences the author had. I could not connect to the story because of the narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The redeeming quality is that normally I am drawn to this type of book and experience. I thought how can I go wrong with this book? The cover art is the best thing about it unfortunately.

Disappointing

For someone who travels the world on foot, I was appalled by her judgement of cultures and people, especially the Mongols. her sense of entitlement was upsetting. The narrator's suave, even naive, voice was a complete disconnection whit what the author was describing. I had to struggle to finish the book.

Not recommended

I have traveled the world and read an array of travel essays. This book unfortunately did not capture me nor draw me in.

Very boring for the adventure it is

I love these types of books, but this book was so incredibly boring. My entire book club did not like it.