Lands of Lost Borders

A Journey on the Silk Road

By: Kate Harris

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

"Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven’t felt for years. It’s a modern classic." (Pico Iyer)

A brilliant, fierce writer makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road - an illuminating and thought-provoking fusion of The Places in Between, Lab Girl, and Wild that dares us to challenge the limits we place on ourselves and the natural world.

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved - to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician - had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars.

In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks: What she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.

Lands of Lost Borders is the chronicle of Harris’ odyssey and an exploration of the importance of breaking the boundaries we set ourselves; an examination of the stories borders tell and the restrictions they place on nature and humanity; and a meditation on the existential need to explore - the essential longing to discover what in the universe we are doing here.

Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, Kate Harris offers a travel account at once exuberant and reflective, wry and rapturous. Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of the self that can never fully be mapped. Weaving adventure and philosophy with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world and ultimately to each other - a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us.

©2018 Kate Harris (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Book/ terrible reading

Wonderful book, but reading torture, real shame! I don't understand why this reading was allowed. Book itself is great.

Beautifully written

Kate Harris has brilliantly written a travelogue that makes us dream and think. Far from the traditional "I went here and saw that," Kate's lyrical writing makes us feel as if we are on the Silk Road with her, contemplating life. Pure adventure and bliss! Highly recommend. I listened to it on audible and the narration was excellent.

Excellent in every respect!

Finished moments ago. Very sad that it ended! An absolutely wonderful read/listen. Great fun.

Great story, unfortunate narration

I could hardly stand the narration, but I liked the story so I sped it up to 1.5 and it became tolerable.

Beautiful Story!

Keep listening. The narration grows on you & the story is too beautiful to miss. <3

Very good

Look, this book is a travel book toward the journey within. The history and science of the external world is brushed upon. The inner strength needed to understand our boundaries within are barely indicated. It’s a pre-beginner’s book for westerners. We all benefit. Thanks

Good story but the narrator is awful

I recommend reading this story on paper rather than listen to it. It's really well-written and a fascinating story. But the narrator seems to not have any idea what words she is saying and just plods along in an awful monotone where she lengthens and softens the last syllable of every sentence. It was infuriating if I'm being honest. The story is written by this badass and very intelligent woman, but is read by this generic soft clueless female voice. The disconnect between what is being said and how it is being said is just an unpleasant experience. I wish the author would have read it.

The narration is distracting at first

The narrator sounds like Siri, especially during the first half. I got used to it after a while, but whoever produced it should have corrected it. It’s great book other than that and still worth getting.

lugubrious narration

became unlistenable, but a wonderful read! so glad I had a print copy on hand. so sad. this audiobook should have been the subject of much happy replaying.

Engaging Story

I was hesitant to purchase this audiobook after reading the reviews of the narrator, and although she was not the best, she was tolerable and did not distract from the story. I found the story, including the backstory of the author leading up to the journey along the Silk Road, extremely engaging. Her take on exploration and boarders were particularly interesting and overall the book is definitely worth listening to.