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)

Loved this book. Now I wanna hike

This is an amazing story of healing. Motivational. Vivid. Inspiring.
At times painful, funny and awe inspiring.

Exceptional

I really loved this book. The story was honestly brutal to be able to share such secrets of the soul so many can also heal if need be and to also journey with her.

Interesting Story, great ode to the Pacific NW

Cheryl Strayed has a keen way of helping you get in her head in this detailed memoir. I really enjoyed learning about the PCT from her perspective and found her story really interesting. She describes people and their nuances very well. The story seemed to drag on a bit...and and end a bit suddenly, but in general a good solid listen (read)--and lovely ode to my side of the world, the pacific NW.

Great Book! I loved listening while I drove !

I loved it..the story and the narrator were amazing..I got lost in the story! Great

Contemporary & Empowering

This is not a "literary" memoir, but it is well-crafted and compelling. I really appreciate Cheryl Strayed's contemporary take on a young woman healing herself and becoming both integrated and powerful. Her path from the shattering death of her mother to too-young wife of a good man and 20-something with a powerful if non-monogamous sex drive to a brief foray into heroin use at the height of the Grunge movement to a solo march, unprepared and ill-equipped through bad-ass wild territory makes real sense to women who read it. She takes responsibility for herself and though some of her decisions are imperfect, she doesn't stigmatize them. Her take on sexuality, risk, drug use, and physical courage are all both honest and inspiring.

The memoir is also a classic on-the-road (albeit on foot) story, a healing journey, travelogue, and coming-of-age. Strayed weaves all of these elements together with real skill and accessible, simple language. Many feminist English majors will celebrate the reading list she brought with her - her beloved books that were her best companions on the trail. The scene reading Adrienne Rich's "Power" as she comes into herself at the end is remarkable. Readers should get their paws on Rich's poem and read it in tandem with that scene.

The book is far better than the movie; the movie is in real-time, so you never hear the voice of the older Cheryl with all her power and happy ending. You only see the weaker, sicker Cheryl at the beginning of her healing process with tawdry flashbacks. The movie incorporates some gratuitously lurid sex scenes that are not in the book (so we can see Reese Witherspoon all dirty?) and don't convey the sense of power and identity that Strayed found through sex in her young years. (Lots of 20-somethings do - it's part of development into an adult, not disgusting.) Also, because the movie is in real-time, it focuses more on Strayed's flashbacks and less on the trail and the kindness and growth she experiences there - which is more than half the book, and the point, indeed.

Phenomenal Read

This book, the story, everything about it was simply amazing. I just watched the movie and it was so disappointing. I'm so happy I read the book. My own imagination was so much better! The woman reading the book also did a phenomenal job. She really felt the book, like really felt each character and the story. Bravo! This book really taught me a lot about my own self. Thank you Cheryl Strayed.

I'm so sad that I finished it! I love it so much!

This book made me feel like I was really there! i have changed my life in little ways because of the things I've learned from it and have made my husband promise that we are going to hike the PCT someday!

Pure and Authentic

It wasn't until a young woman isolated herself from society that she truly experiences human connection. This story is pure and authentic, a must read for anyone that wants to experience a glimpse into human vulnerability. Cheryl bravely tells her story about her life in a beautiful raw adaptation, and how she found human strength through her journey.

Hiking inspiration for fellow book nerds!

I really enjoyed the personal perspectives and excellent writing skills bringing this story to life. Narration was also spot on. Recommended for anyone wanting to hear about the realities of thru-hiking shared as if talking to a friend.

amazing read!

loved it! inspiring and motivating. looking forward to starting some long distance hiking and backpacking myself very soon.