The Desert and the Sea

977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast

By: Michael Scott Moore

Narrated by: Corey Snow

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Michael Scott Moore, a journalist and the author of Sweetness and Blood, incorporates personal narrative and rigorous investigative journalism in this profound and revelatory memoir of his three-year captivity by Somali pirates - a riveting, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant exploration of foreign policy, religious extremism, and the costs of survival.

In January 2012, having covered a Somali pirate trial in Hamburg for Spiegel Online International - and funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting - Michael Scott Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped and subsequently held captive by Somali pirates. Subjected to conditions that break even the strongest spirits - physical injury, starvation, isolation, terror - Moore’s survival is a testament to his indomitable strength of mind. In September 2014, after 977 days, he walked free when his ransom was put together by the help of several US and German institutions, friends, colleagues, and his strong-willed mother. 

Yet Moore’s own struggle is only part of the story: The Desert and the Sea falls at the intersection of reportage, memoir, and history. Caught between Muslim pirates, the looming threat of Al-Shabaab, and the rise of ISIS, Moore observes the worlds that surrounded him - the economics and history of piracy; the effects of post-colonialism; the politics of hostage negotiation and ransom; while also conjuring the various faces of Islam - and places his ordeal in the context of the larger political and historical issues.           

A sort of Catch-22 meets Black Hawk Down, The Desert and the Sea is written with dark humor, candor, and a journalist’s clinical distance and eye for detail. Moore offers an intimate and otherwise inaccessible view of life as we cannot fathom it, brilliantly weaving his own experience as a hostage with the social, economic, religious, and political factors creating it. The Desert and the Sea is wildly compelling and a book that will take its place next to titles like Den of Lions and Even Silence Has an End.

©2018 Michael Scott Moore (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Wow!

I kept forgetting this is non fiction! Absolutely amazing to the end. Probably my favorite book this year. Great job Michael, and thanks to Joe Rogan for introducing me to this.

A+++

Wow! Discovered Michael Scott Moores story from him being on Joe Rogans Podcast and what an amazing book to listen to. Makes me look at life completly diffrent. not gonna lie, I did have tears in my eyes the last couple chapters.

Exceptional Memoir

This is a fascinating story about the three years of Moore’s captivity by Somali pirates. Moore is a journalist and a gifted storyteller. Moore used his journalist tools of observation, interviewing techniques, and his interest in people’s stories to help him survive and then write an excellent memoir. The author provided a first-hand account of the Muslim pirates, the beginning of Al-Shabaab and the rise of ISIS which revealed the various faces of Islam. I was interested in his analysis of the political and economic problems of Somali.

The book is well written; in fact, Moore’s storytelling gift made it read like a page turning novel. The story of his capture, starvation, isolation and injuries made this into a nail-biting thriller. He made this so real I almost felt the flies crawling on my face.

The book is just over twelve hours. Coray Snow does an excellent job narrating the story. Snow was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division and is now a full-time audiobook narrator. Snow specializes in science fiction, fantasy, military and history audiobooks. He has a voice that is easy to listen too. He has a reading rhythm appropriate to the story.

parallel worlds

I really enjoyed how this author was able to meld his story and experience as a hostage with his story and experiences in his childhood. I also really enjoyed how he took us on his emotional and psychological Journey not just his physical Journey. This book is definitely worthwhile reading. You will get intmate details on an experience most of us will hopefully never have. The most surprising part of the story for me was how uplifting it was at times. I really expected for this to be a pretty solemn raed but it had me thinking about all kinds of things from self-indulgence to understanding other cultures.

Relevant & Philosophical

This articulate and reflective memoir is colorful in its language but relevant to our time and worth yours.

How he survived as a captive in Somali

Michael Scott Moore describes in detail his 977 days in captivity after being kidnapped by Somali pirates. He was held for ransom by the pirates who were demanding 20 million dollars, much more than his family could afford. He talks in detail about the mental and physical stress and pain he endured. He contemplated suicide often and had given up hope after thinking he would be rescued which failed to occur. He explains how he endured and survived. I found it interesting to gain some understanding of what I would consider to be an unendurable trial. It was well written and the narrator did a fine job. Well worth the credit to buy it.

Incredible story!!

I loved the raw description of the struggle of resistance of the human spirit against all odds as described by the feelings of the writer. Inspiring all of us to think why if we are so intelligent we are so capable of harming one another. Religions and religious people of different types ignoring the message of their respective guidance and some how justifying their nepherious acts against others on the pursuit to satisfying their own greed. And as the writer notes, no much has changed throughout time. Thank you for sharing Michael, you survived to bear witness and through your story perhaps inspire many more to better? More appreciative?... I have!!

amazing

excellent story. way too much profanity. I understand his anger, but I do wish there had been more insight into the trials of the Pirates.

all the stars deserved!!!!

This is a exceptional piece of true life literature. It really depicts and informsthe listener of his plight, journey and human interaction w the pirates and the other abducted . Excellent!!!

You too can feel like a hostage

Want to know what interminable meals of goat and noodles feel like? Listen to this book and you’ll get 977 repetitions of hostage meal menus. I want to feel empathetic for this guy but mainly i feel annoyed and exhausted that he padded his book with random musing about anything and everything along with descriptions of bad guys that have no meaningful role in the story, his meals etc and anything else that fills pages. This would have been a good book in 1/3 of the narrative-but i guess the author wanted us to feel authentic hostage experiences too.

Good

Heard the guy who wrote the book on adam Buxtons podcast and was interested in the story, I enjoyed it :)

loved it so good recommend 100% great story

loved it a story of a man that went through the he'll and survived great book

awesome story 👏 thank you for sharing

awesome story 👏 thank you for sharing it a really good listen 🎶 once again awesome story

Quite interesting

Michael deserves significant respect for surviving this ordeal, and this is a good book if you want to hear about the harrowing three years he spent as a captive.

For me though I didn't find the book especially interesting or insightful. It didn't provide too much insight into the wider topic of piracy in Somalia, it really is just focused on Michael's day to day existence doing almost nothing. if I'm honest it's eight hours of listening that could have been better spent. Others may like it, but for me it just didn't offer that much

Very interesting story

After listening to Michael on a podcast wanted to hear this full story. It’s a very interesting tale, very well written. I found the narration a little difficult at first, but got I used to it relatively quickly.

Very interesting story, well written, well narrated

I am only reviewing Part One ofthe Audiobook download, but as I start Part Two I cannot imagine the story could lose its hold on me, that the quality of the writing would suddenly deteriorate or that the narrator would suddenly become dull or irritating.

As I said in the headline, all three of these vital elements are excellent.

The author, who went through this ordeal, tells us some of Somalia’s recent history but in small informative chunks that never feel like a history lesson. His portrayal of the different captors and fellow captives is alsodone well.

I am really enjoying this book, hoping of course that nothing remotely similar ever happens to me.

Onlyone thing: I hope by the end wewill hear a bit more about how his mother handled things and how the negotiations that finally led to her son’s freedom unfolded.... anyway, let’s see!

Superb listen

Excellent story. Really enjoyed it. What an ordeal to go through. Well written and presented

wow. what a great story.

An amazing story and sometimes hard to come to terms with just how different some parts of the world can be.

Epic

This book provides an incredible ‘POV’ realism to the true terror of modern day kidnap and piratism.
Michael Scott-Moore brings to life his experiences vividly.

brilliant

amazing story and very inspiring, griping from start to finish, really recommend this. narrated perfectly