The Twenty-Ninth Day

Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra

By: Alex Messenger

Narrated by: Alex Messenger

Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

A 600-mile canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness is a 17-year-old's dream adventure, but after he is mauled by a grizzly bear, it's all about staying alive. 

This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive. Over the next hours and days, Alex and his companions tend his wounds and use their resilience, ingenuity, and dogged perseverance to reach help at a remote village a thousand miles north of the US-Canadian border. 

The Twenty-Ninth Day is a coming-of-age story like no other, filled with inspiring subarctic landscapes, thrilling riverine paddling, and a trial by fire of the human spirit.

©2019 Alex Messenger (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Will stir the adventurous spirit

Being myself, born & raised in a Montana more wild than now, this story stirred memories of my own experiences living among Grizzlies of the great northwest. It's a book well worth an adventurous spirit, the time it takes to read it.
J. L.

Such great writing....

Alex Messenger has done himself proud with this riveting story. His accounts of canoeing across huge lakes full of candle ice threatening to maroon them in a sea of unstable ice is every bit as compellingly written as the encounter with the bear. He also did a masterful job of describing the medical challenges that followed, both physical and psychological. THE 29th DAY should stand with other classic wilderness tales. Loved his reading, as well. Thanks, Alex, Polly and Steve

Disappointed... could not do it

I was very disappointed with this audiobook. I was originally excited to hear the story of survival... the story of how this 17 year old survived this attack and about the lead up to the attack.

What we got was a VERY long, tedious, boring, monotone story about the canoe trip and I did not make it to the actual parts of the story I was hoping to hear.

Disappointed.

Intense, Riveting, and Raw

Alex’s descriptive storytelling transports you into the vast openness and wildness of the tundra as if you were on the adventure with him. His story will make you laugh, cringe, gasp in awe, and sigh with relief over and over again. The Twenty-Ninth Day is exhilarating and real. Its anticipatory moments of uncertainty are mirrored with touching moments of tenderness. I highly recommend this book.

*

This is not my typical read but the eloquent writing and pleasant voice of the narrator/author made it easy to finish.

Easy listening

I really enjoyed this book, the author did a great job describing his harrowing ordeal and at the same time the beauty that was found in such remote wilderness. The narration was easy to listen and kept at a good pace.

Reading style is terrible!

This is nooot the person that should be reading audible books. Good god, he lets his voice fade, and so quiet and monotoned. I have to quite listening only because the reader.

The author was not a good narrator

I should start by saying that I didn’t love this book. It suffered from extraneous and boring details. No one wants a description of unwrapping a taffy unless it is somehow important. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.) While I would have expected a first-person story of a beat attack to be riveting, it wasn’t. Instead it felt like I spent the whole book waiting to be interested. I never was. I wish the author had given more attention to who individual people were in terms of their characters instead of describing each meal. But the worst part of this was the narration. He mumbled, had a tendency to rush through certain passages, and sounded bored with his own story. If he was bored, how could anyone else be interested? I wanted this to be a Jon Krakauer book. It wasn’t.

Excellent story, and beautiful storytelling!

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves wilderness exploration, self-discovery and/or bear enthusiasts. The book is narrated by the author, and he is an outstanding writer. I found his tone to be a bit monotone at times. I sped the book up to 1.2x and that helped a lot. Sounded like he was trying to read the book quietly.

Great book!

A canoe trip story with a bear attack

Kinda long in spots but overall a good story. I didn't feel any connection to the long man in the story, maybe a little more backstory was needed.

worth a look but lacklustre narration

This is a pleasant (and not so pleasant of course!) wilderness adventure tale and speaks volumes of what a person can endure. Also a really inspiring example of what youngsters could be getting up to rather than sitting on their PlayStations 24-7!
However, it would have been so much better with a professional narrator. The author has a perfectly pleasant voice, but it's just so flat. I hate to use that word that gets thrown about a lot when people don't like a narrator, but a bit monotone. The cadence felt the same no matter if we were hearing about a beautiful experience in nature...or a bear was muching his leg! Still worth a look if you like this genre.

Incredible

Incredible story and I love that it is Alex who narrates. I have listened to it twice now and will probably do so again.
Amazing

😴

A really long build up... To realy not much.
The story could be told in within 10 minutes- would probably be more interesting too, than nearly 8 hours!

Nice book, Worth a listen

Great adventure, well written and narrated.
Quite enjoyable to listen to.
Well done for keeping it together :)

Lucky Boy!

I thought it was a great true account, the author is lucky to be alive, the mustn't have tasted good, what a story!

really good transcript

this was a really good transcript of a true life story.. but I feel it could have been more enjoyable to listen too, if it was read by someone else as it seemed very flat. I believe this was due to the author reading it and not wanting to get to emotional about his story.

A fantastic story but I'm giving up

It is such a fantastic story but I'm afraid I can't finish it as the narration is starting to make me feel sleepy. There are just no levels, maybe professional narration would be a better option.

29th day.

Incredible story.Calm clear narrative. Really exciting moments. Not a typical boys adventure .Highly recommend.

A bit boring

I have no doubt this was a terrifying experience but the story was really boring. Strange amount of detail was included too no doubt to make it more of a story but it felt like a lot of the details were probably fabricated to pad it out as no ones memory is that good.

Dragged on and onnnnn

The first 20 odd chapters were sooo boring. Once it got to the eventual bear attack it became less boring. Would have definitely returned this book if I had purchased it.