The Sheltering Sky cover art

The Sheltering Sky

A Novel

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Sheltering Sky

By: Paul Bowles
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Audio edition of the landmark of 20th Century literature, by acclaimed author Paul Bowles

“The Sheltering Sky is one of the most original, even visionary, works of fiction to appear in the twentieth century.” —Tobias Wolff

""It stands head and shoulders above most other novels published in English since World War II.” —New Republic

In this classic work of psychological terror, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans apprehend other cultures--and the ways in which their incomprehension destroys them. The story of three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky is at once merciless and heartbreaking in its compassion. It etches the limits of human reason and intelligence--perhaps even the limits of human life --when they touch the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the dessert.

 Classics Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Naked Lunch cover art
Crooked Cross cover art
The Spider's House cover art
The Storyteller of Casablanca cover art
Let It Come Down cover art
No Country for Old Men cover art
Asian Journals cover art
The Brothers Karamazov cover art
Up Above the World cover art
The Painted Bird cover art
The Hemingway Stories cover art
The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories cover art
Empire Falls cover art
Death in Venice cover art
The Man Who Disappeared (America) cover art
Cry, the Beloved Country cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I liked everyone losing their marbles. It’s a gradually unfolding existential nightmare. Wasn’t expecting the grim sexual assault stuff and am not sure what to make of it.

Effective existential dread.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listened to this with my partner in tandem on a road trip in southern Morocco. Well told, the female narrator capturing a range of male voices. Narration and text working together, the momentum is such that you find yourself forgiving the under-motivation of the characters, forever touring deeper into territory that holds nothing for them

A captivating listen. Yes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Every sentence sounds like a crazy wild secret being shared; breathy, loud, over dramatic, too fast, too slow, like an audition. Sounds more like Tomb Raider for people that might be lostif its not super-fast than the lazy, languid, thoughtful novel it is.

No.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found this book to be shocking, compelling, frightening and extremely well written. It is an amazing but disturbing story. The way the author describes every small detail of every situation is mind blowing!! An excellent and very thought provoking classic.

Extraordinary characters in the book!!!

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