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Soundings

Journeys in the Company of Whales

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About this listen

From Mexico to the Arctic ice, grey whale mothers swim with their calves. Following them, by bus, train and ferry, are Doreen and her toddler Max, in pursuit of a wild hope. Doreen first visited Alaska as a young journalist reporting on climate change among indigenous whaling communities. There, drawn deeply into an Iñupiaq family, she joined the bowhead whale hunt, watching for polar bears under the never-ending light. Years later, now a single mother living in a hostel, Doreen embarks on this extraordinary journey: following the grey whale migration back to the Arctic, where greys and bowheads meet at the melting apex of our planet.

WINNER OF THE RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD

ONE OF SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE'S TEN BEST BOOKS ABOUT TRAVEL OF 2022

©2022 Doreen Cunningham (P)2022 Hachette Audio UK Adventure Travel Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Environmentalists & Naturalists Motherhood Parenting & Families Professionals & Academics Relationships Women Polar Region Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Inspiring

Critic reviews

"Soundings got under my skin. I finished it in tears." (Amy Liptrott)

"Beautiful...justifies its place alongside nature writing classics such as H Is for Hawk." (New Statesman, Best Books of 2022)

"What a voice! What a book!" (Charles Foster, author of Being a Human)
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A gloriously brave and beautifully told tale of one (exceptional) woman reclaiming her life and simultaneously learning how to be a single parent. All of this with the stunning background of a description of whales' migration and reflections on climate change.

A truly original and remarkable book.

I highly recommend this!

'It was worth having no hope, only so I could experience receiving it back.'

Brave and beautiful

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The pieces that make up this story help bring a baseline to how parenting is not only the role one brings to their child, but also to themselves, their communities and the adventures and stories the fosters. Cunningham births herself by rewilding who she is as a new mother fighting to be safe, visible and independent, in a world often not setup for following whims, curiosities and the like. She does this by following the great whale migration, and it is such an honest, gripping and brave pilgrimage she shares.

A pilgrimage of whale, calf, mother toddler

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I finished this book a few days ago and I’m still thinking about it. It’s a true story of a mum and her son and a journey they take to watch the grey whale migration. The way the author has woven her past & recent traumas with more facts about climate issues than I had a clue about while hooking me on the deep romance of her life, made this memoir hard to put down. I’ve learned so much without even trying. And I’ve enjoyed the process, relating to the parallels of human and whale mothering. What a beautiful way to engage with such important topics. The authors voice was sincere, it felt like she was telling me a story rather than reading a book. Just love it!

Important and urgent

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You sort of know what you’re going to get with this book and you sort of get it but it takes strange turns and by the end is very moving

Strange and moving

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About time!
I almost whooped with recognition reading this book. Doreen Cunningham is a brilliantly bolshy, accomplished and insecure woman. She's a foul mouthed environmentalist and a single mum who takes her toddler son out of a womens hostel and sets off on an extrordinary adventure following whales.
No one follows whales thousands of miles around the world with a toddler. Do they? Well yes Doreen does. This work pushes boundaries not just because Doreen Cuningham has a wildly independent spirit but because soundings is talking of how extraordinary ordinary women and mothers have to be. And how good they are at doing just that. Cunningham is a writer that moves through the human and non human. She broaches life in all it's messy reality, death, motion and migration. The environment, love, indigenous cultures and people. This is a deeply effecting memoir and I didn't want it to end.

A furious pulse.

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