Listen free for 30 days
-
Young Men and Fire
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Art & Literature
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £22.89
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
- By: Norman Maclean
- Narrated by: David Manis
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean claims that “in my family, there is no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.” Nor is there a clear line between family and fly-fishing. It is the one activity where brother can connect with brother and father with son, bridging troubled relationships at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana. In Maclean’s autobiographical novella, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related.
-
-
Haunted by waters
- By Anonymous User on 11-05-19
-
The Last Season
- By: Eric Blehm
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada - mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.
-
-
Great book for lovers of the outdoors and a mystery
- By Mr. Richard Norton on 17-01-18
-
Roads to Quoz
- An American Mosey
- By: William Least Heat-Moon
- Narrated by: William Least Heat-Moon
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first time since Blue Highways, Heat-Moon is back on the backroads. Roads to Quoz is his lyrical, funny, and touching account of a series of American journeys into small-town America.
-
Critical Hours
- Search and Rescue in the White Mountains
- By: Sandy Stott
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sandy Stott, the "Accidents" editor at the journal of the Appalachian Mountain Club, delivers both a history and a celebration of the search and rescue workers who save countless lives in the White Mountains - along with a plea for us not to take their steadfastness and bravery for granted. Filled with tales of astonishing courage and sobering tragedy, Critical Hours will appeal to outdoor enthusiasts and armchair adventurers alike.
-
Brave Companions
- Portraits in History
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Truman and John Adams, David McCullough has written profiles of exceptional men and women past and present who have not only shaped the course of history or changed how we see the world but whose stories express much that is timeless about the human condition. Here are Alexander von Humboldt, whose epic explorations of South America surpassed the Lewis and Clark expedition; Harriet Beecher Stowe, "the little woman who made the big war”....
-
Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- By: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar start-up, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose start-up ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Amazon Customer on 24-08-18
-
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
- By: Norman Maclean
- Narrated by: David Manis
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean claims that “in my family, there is no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.” Nor is there a clear line between family and fly-fishing. It is the one activity where brother can connect with brother and father with son, bridging troubled relationships at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana. In Maclean’s autobiographical novella, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related.
-
-
Haunted by waters
- By Anonymous User on 11-05-19
-
The Last Season
- By: Eric Blehm
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada - mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.
-
-
Great book for lovers of the outdoors and a mystery
- By Mr. Richard Norton on 17-01-18
-
Roads to Quoz
- An American Mosey
- By: William Least Heat-Moon
- Narrated by: William Least Heat-Moon
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first time since Blue Highways, Heat-Moon is back on the backroads. Roads to Quoz is his lyrical, funny, and touching account of a series of American journeys into small-town America.
-
Critical Hours
- Search and Rescue in the White Mountains
- By: Sandy Stott
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sandy Stott, the "Accidents" editor at the journal of the Appalachian Mountain Club, delivers both a history and a celebration of the search and rescue workers who save countless lives in the White Mountains - along with a plea for us not to take their steadfastness and bravery for granted. Filled with tales of astonishing courage and sobering tragedy, Critical Hours will appeal to outdoor enthusiasts and armchair adventurers alike.
-
Brave Companions
- Portraits in History
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Truman and John Adams, David McCullough has written profiles of exceptional men and women past and present who have not only shaped the course of history or changed how we see the world but whose stories express much that is timeless about the human condition. Here are Alexander von Humboldt, whose epic explorations of South America surpassed the Lewis and Clark expedition; Harriet Beecher Stowe, "the little woman who made the big war”....
-
Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- By: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar start-up, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose start-up ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Amazon Customer on 24-08-18
-
The Johnstown Flood
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon.
-
-
An horrific and sad tragedy
- By GAC on 07-07-21
-
Finding Everett Ruess
- The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finding Everett Ruess is the definitive biography of the artist, writer, and eloquent celebrator of the wilderness whose bold solo explorations of the American West and mysterious disappearance in the Utah desert at age 20 have earned him a large and devoted cult following.
-
Out on Foot
- Nightly Patrols and Ghostly Tales of a US Border Patrol Agent
- By: Rocky Elmore
- Narrated by: Richard L. Palmer
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Rocky Elmore joined the United States Border Patrol, he knew it would be a journey fraught with danger. But little did he know that the very real trails he walked night after night would soon lead him into surreal encounters from a different dimension. This was never more evident than when the ghost of a recently fallen fellow agent began to appear on top of the cliff from which he died. It marked the beginning of the end to one of the most bizarre series of events in the history of the US Border Patrol.
-
-
Not just about the paranormal - great listen
- By A.L.Mornington on 04-07-22
-
Smokejumper
- A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
- By: Jason A. Ramos, Julian Smith
- Narrated by: Ned Vaughn
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes listeners into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping's remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.
-
-
Loved it
- By allan fraser on 08-06-20
-
White Mountain
- By: Robert Twigger
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Home to mythical kingdoms, wars and expeditions and strange and magical beasts, the Himalayas have always loomed tall in our imagination. Overrun at different times by Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, Islam and Christianity, they are a grand central station of the world's religions. They are also a plant hunter's paradise, a climber's challenge and a traveller's dream.
-
Endurance
- Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
-
-
Enthralling
- By penobscott on 10-07-17
-
The Esperanza Fire
- Arson, Murder and the Agony of Engine 57
- By: John N. Maclean
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending.
-
The White Cascade
- The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.
-
In Search of the Canary Tree
- The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
- By: Lauren E. Oakes
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.
-
How to Make the World Add Up
- Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Tim Harford
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When was the last time you read a grand statement, accompanied by a large number and wondered whether it could really be true? Statistics are vital in helping us tell stories - we see them in the papers, on social media and we hear them used in everyday conversation - and yet we doubt them more than ever. But numbers - in the right hands - have the power to change the world for the better. Contrary to popular belief, good statistics are not a trick, although they are a kind of magic.
-
-
Fascinating stories and insights
- By Amazon Customer on 06-10-20
-
11.22.63
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you could go back in time and change the course of history?11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless.... King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill who becomes the love of Jake's life.
-
-
Return to top form
- By John on 14-12-11
-
Wolf Hall
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 24 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need, comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.
-
-
Mannered style. Dreary reading. Left me cold.
- By Amazon Customer on 14-06-18
Summary
On August 5, 1949, a crew of 15 of the United States Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of these men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for 40 years, Norman Maclean puts back together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy.
More from the same
What listeners say about Young Men and Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- N. Snel-Hest
- 30-01-19
Melancholic, interesting, meandering.
This book was not finished in Maclean's lifetime and you can tell. Although the research is superb, and certain sections magnificent, it meanders and desperately needed a good editor. It is still a fine book and worth the trouble, but bear this in mind.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dave Wilson
- 18-10-21
Needs supplement
McLean’s prose is nearly vivid and descriptive enough to overcome it, but a key part of the book involves several photographs that McLean himself captured or acquired as he researched the book. One of the few times I have really wanted a supplement in an audiobook.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Barbara
- 27-06-18
Simply a masterpiece.
I had read this book, and was glad I had my printed copy to refer to the maps. But either way, it is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It is tragic, and magnificent.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Bobalouie
- 16-06-17
Moving and technically fascinating story.
Going to listen to the rest of Mclean's writing now. Superb writing and magnificent narration.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gillian
- 28-05-17
A Tragedy, A Mystery, A Poem For The Dead
The greatest strength of "Young Men and Fire" is its way with words, its turns of phrases, its shocking imagery. It's like the Literary version of Creative Nonfiction, just beautifully written.
The first part of the book is of the fire itself, of the young men, some mere boys, who didn't even have a chance to try to fight it, but were running for their lives within mere minutes of its blowing up.
This is followed by Norman Maclean's efforts to really get at what happened, complete with going back to the scene several times, as a relatively aged man, to find juniper bushes, crevices in rocks where two terrified men could squeeze through, rusted cans with two punctures in the rim, to see if the crosses for the dead are where men indeed met their wretched ends. It's a mystery, it's a battle with a bureaucracy, it is research at its humane best.
But through the whole book, the writing is what stands out and what holds it back. Maclean had to abandon the work before his own death, and I guess this is what the editors drew together to make a whole work that is not without its seams. The poetic turns of phrase jump back and forth, sometimes stumbling around making the reader/listener get lost in time and in space. I wonder if this stands out more here in this Unabridged version.
Still, it's a vivid account of a horrible day, a fine tribute to those who lost their lives, who might've been saved except for unfortunate split-second decisions, a poem about life and death, and a window into an old man's soul.
Not a perfect listen, but I enjoyed the many questions posed, lived, answered.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 21-01-22
Felt like rambling after awhile
An intriguing topic and an acclaimed author had me excited for this book but honestly I was thankful when it was done. The initial account was good but the obsessive and exhausting scientific attempt to verify one part of the incident went on WAY too long. Without the personal connection to the location that the author had, I simply couldn’t share his obsession of the incident.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Marc D Fairbanks
- 15-07-21
Wonderful!
How Maclean is able to address scientific information, human emotion, and historical events all at the same time AND make it fascinating and inspiring is beyond my understanding! I loved how we are taught about these young smoke jumpers and an old man running out of time all at the same time. I highly recommend this book!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Scott Mulvaney
- 08-10-20
Former Hotshot Approved
As a former hotshot wildland firefighter I highly recommend this book to understand the history of what has created our wildland firefighting impacts to this day.
-
Overall

- Anonymous User
- 30-03-20
SAMS required read. Doctrine Man reccommended.
i thought the audio version was well done. the story is a great study in team composition and communication.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jordyn Warren
- 25-03-20
A masterpiece by Maclean
This is a book I will forever keep on my audible shelf! The prose and narrative was amazing! A great performance! It should be a mandatory read/listen for any student of natural resources and American Western history.