Wild

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

By: Cheryl Strayed

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Wild is a powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again.

At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faced down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

©2012 Cheryl Strayed (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

“No one can write like Cheryl Strayed. Wild is one of the most unflinching and emotionally honest books I've read in a long time. It is about forgiveness and grief, bravery and hope. It is unforgettable.” (Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle)

“While reading Cheryl Strayed’s stunning book about her arduous solo journey along the Pacific Crest Trail, I kept asking myself - what would I do if I were stripped bare of everything - money, job, community, even family and love? Thoreau once said, ‘In wildness is the preservation of the world.’ For Strayed, it is clear that in wildness was the preservation of her soul. She reminds us, in her lyrical and courageous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss." (Mira Bartók, author of The Memory Palace)

“Cheryl Strayed can sure tell a story. In Wild, she describes her journey from despair to transcendence with honesty, humor, and heart-cracking poignancy. This is a great book.” (Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia and Seeking Peace)

Great read!

I loved this book! Typically I listen on my commute, but with this book I listened to it almost nonstop! A wonderfully told story about an incredibly flawed young women seeking redemption and peace by completing an arduous physical and mental task of hiking the PCT! Amazing read.

Must Reaf

Top 10 read ever. Best audio book ever. Wonderful…from the beginning I’m drawn to Cheryl and her inner and outer journey. Inspirational, but in a obtainable and relatable way.

Excellent book

Loved this true story and loved the way it was read aloud. I usually only listen to audiobooks if they're red by the offer but this was done really well

Thoroughly Enjoyed

Great story. Wonderful narration. Loved it and would recommend. Touching and inspiring. Great listen. Excellent

Not my cup of tea

Not my cup or tea. Somewhat boring.
I do wish I haven’t spent credit for this book. It was a pain to get threw

wow.

exceptionally written and voice acted. im not the type of person who would normally say this, but the story told in this book has changed how i look at my life.

This book inspired me to hike the PCT

I read this book in 2015 and half way through I said to my husband, “I’m going to do this.” Two years later I took a leave of absence from work and started my hike at the Southern terminus on the border with Mexico. It was so scary that first day but grew to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I picked this book for my book club and had to listen to it because I couldn’t find my paperback copy. I nearly cried listening to the last chapter because my experience was so similar to Cheryl’s and I was sad to hear it end, just as I was when mine did. The same highs, lows, and heavy pack that tortured my body, I did come home with all my toenails and I had a credit card for hot meals when I was in civilization so I didn’t rough it in quite the same way. My name is also Cheryl. My trail name was Cheryl Not Strayed, which I was dubbed on day two after explaining to a group of hikers why I was there. My journal entry at the trailhead read, “Stupid book!,” though nothing could be further from the truth!

Remarkable journey of self discovery and healing

This is a book both about life on the trail but also about bravery, self searching, grieving, kindness, grit, perseverance and healing towards a new self. A must read!

Glad I Took the Trip

I am probably one of the last people to read and review this book because I tend to shy away from most Oprah selections. Yes, Oprah has inspired thousands to pick up a book who otherwise might not have and catapulted authors into super stardom and for that I applaud her and am thankful. I just tend to stray from over-hyped books at first. There, I said it; please don't hate me.

This selection was wonderful and here is why I enjoyed it. At 26, Cheryl was divorced from a man she loved; lost her supportive mother to cancer; abusive father left around age 6; disconnected from siblings; and was pulling out of a previous spiral into the world of heroin. Finding herself in a dark place, she turned to the guide for hiking the Pacific Coast Trail as many people turn to the Bible or any other source of enlightenment to find themselves.

Strayed shares abundant, almost copious details from her 2 months journey, laying out all the ugly and pretty inbetween with a raw, soul-searching style. You embark on the ill-planned journey of her life in addition to the hiking trip and travel not only through the rough terrain and mishaps, but deep into her soul searching. I don't find her self-involved or Godless, merely honest and I enjoyed each and every step.

Some reviewers disliked the narrator and I admit I wasn't crazy about her voice at first. If Cheryl was 26, I was thrown how the narrator's gravely older voice didn't match. However after the first 30 minutes, was hooked. Grew to think of her as the present day Cheryl recounting the past.

If you read and enjoy this title, download or pick up a copy of Mary Karr's, "Lit."

An emotional rollercoaster

Any additional comments?

The writing style is a little airy-fairy for my taste, with a few too many hallmark flourishes. And the reader's voice bugged me all the way though -- there was something sugar-coated and trying too hard to please in Dunne's voice, but she was probably a good match for the narrator -- who is struggling to break through her own flirty, girly, too eager to please persona. But a few passages in the book were so powerful and unflinching and incredibly sad they had me welling up with tears on my commute. A weird, uneven book, but strangely moving.