Underland cover art

Underland

A Deep Time Journey

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Underland

By: Robert Macfarlane
Narrated by: Roy McMillan
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for the Best Nonfiction Audiobook at the New York Festival Radio Awards 2020.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2019
WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020

'You'd be crazy not to read this book' The Sunday Times

A Guardian Best Book of the 21st Century

From the internationally bestselling, prize-winning author of Landmarks, The Lost Words and The Old Ways

In Underland, Robert Macfarlane takes us on a journey into the worlds beneath our feet. From the ice-blue depths of Greenland's glaciers, to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet's past and future. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, Underland is a work of huge range and power, and a remarkable new chapter in Macfarlane's long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2020

'Macfarlane has invented a new kind of book, really a new genre entirely'
The Irish Times

'He is the great nature writer, and nature poet, of this generation' Wall Street Journal

'Macfarlane has shown how utterly beautiful a brilliantly written travel book can still be' Observer on The Old Ways

'Irradiated by a profound sense of wonder... Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly' Independent on Landmarks

'It sets the imagination tingling...like reading a prose Odyssey sprinkled with imagist poems' The Sunday Times on The Old Ways

© Robert Macfarlane 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Earth Sciences Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Travel Writing & Commentary Conservation Polar Region Thought-Provoking Inspiring Natural History Sailing

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Critic reviews

a brilliant, thrilling, terrifying work of literature, making me want to think more adventurously and live more deeply.
All Macfarlane's books are urgings to take a closer look at the environment we live in, and at the natural world especially. They are perception-shifters. And with its darker, delving subject matter counter-weighing its lyricism, Underland is a magnificent feat of writing, travelling and thinking that feels genuinely frontier-pushing, unsettling and exploratory
Robert Macfarlane is a magician with words. In Underland he shows us how to see in the dark. His writing is like a vortex... Once caught, you're pulled deeper and deeper with each page (Andrea Wulf, best-selling author of 'The Invention of Nature')
Devastating, lyrical, blazingly vivid... An examination of the darknesses invisible beneath our feet. The book's great power comes from Macfarlane's deliberate turn away from despair and toward a deliberate, loving, and luminous sense of awe (Lauren Groff)
Robert Macfarlane's writing reminds us of the astonishing variety of things you can see when you go at walking speed, and of how strange and rich the world is (Philip Pullman)
The great nature writer, and nature poet, of this generation
Exquisite. [Robert Macfarlane] evokes so vividly places to which I and probably you will never go, and at the eeriness of the places themselves and the sense of vast scale they restore to us at a time when it can feel like the world has shrunken around us (Rebecca Solnit)
An epic descent into a series of underground and underwater landscapes
Beautifully written and wise, this haunting book is a treasure... It reads like a seamless dive, crawl, and trek through deep time, in sense-rich landscapes, accompanied by fascinating views of the human saga. Its unique spell is irresistible (Diane Ackerman)
Beautifully and bravely balanced... This is a radical book in every sense. It goes as deep as it can, unafraid of the risk that what it finds will turn everything on its head
All stars
Most relevant
I feel quite exhausted, as if i had joined the author in his (insane) journeys across glaciers, out to remote icy islands, then down into catacombs and other terrifying constricted spaces deep in the earth.
Despite covering some seriously heavy material on microbiology, geology and nuclear physics (and lots more besides), his eloquent writing style makes you feel as if you know what’s going on.
I kept a notepad to hand to google things later, altho spellings can be tricky.
It’s a fascinating book, with faultless narration, but one to take slowly as it’s quite intense.
And it’s not just about the natural world but takes in history, art, politics and poetry.
The author is erudite and astute but has a lightness of touch with some laugh-out-loud descriptions of places and people.
Amazing book which I shall dip in to again.

Epic. Sobering. Wonderful.

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Uterly captivating will listen to this over and over again, and added more places i wish to go.

Beautiful.

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I found this book got better and better. found little to enjoy in caving sections but by the end was fascinated

strong second half

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I am a recent convert to the joys of non-fiction writing and this book is the best one I have read to date.

Robert Macfarlane takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride of information, ideas and underground landscapes that are totally unique on this planet, covering subjects that are as diverse as climate change, history of art, geopolitics, archaeology, caving, geology, history, physical geography,social history, astronomy, nuclear physics, architecture, microbiology and botany. The writing is sublime and the narration is excellent, though the pronunciation of some of the technical terms was a little suspect at times.

A fantastic book and I am looking forward to reading more of this author's work. He has a tremendous ability to write of nature's ability to astound and inspire. I'd give it more than ten out of ten if I could.

Stunning. Nature writing at its very best.

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One of the best books I have ever "read" and easily the best read/performed audiobooks. Highly recommended to everyone.

A brilliant book, beautifully read.

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