Kings of the Yukon, Adam Weymouth
Kings of the Yukon, Adam Weymouth
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Kings of the Yukon
One Summer Paddling Across the Far North

Author: Adam Weymouth

Narrator: Charlie Anson

Unabridged: 9 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/15/2018


Synopsis

A thrilling journey by canoe across Alaska, by critically acclaimed writer Adam Weymouth.

The Yukon river is 2,000 miles long, the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes along the river's length, from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet.

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the communities that live along the river, salmon was once the lifeblood of the economy and local culture. But climate change and a globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between man and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them.

Traveling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, Kings of the Yukon is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic.

"Kings of the Yukon succeeds as an adventure tale, a natural history and a work of art."-Wall Street Journal

Reviews

Goodreads review by Candi on April 27, 2019

4.5 stars "The life of a fish and a river, as I have learned, is astonishingly complex." This isn’t the type of book I imagined myself picking up. But then, I do enjoy an excellent travelogue. However, I was just the tiniest bit hesitant to read about salmon; and I knew that the plight of the King, as......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on May 10, 2018

5 King Salmon stars to Kings of the Yukon! 🐟 🐟 🐟 🐟 🐟 We traveled to Alaska and the Yukon Territory on our honeymoon, and I must say, I have never seen anything more majestic, pristinely beautiful, and untouched, as the Yukon, its waters, the land, the mountains. In Kings of the Yukon, Adam Weymouth......more

Goodreads review by Paul on July 12, 2024

The king salmon, it is called in the United States of America; the chinook, in Canada. By any name, it is pre-eminent among the species of salmon that swim down the Yukon River as small fry, and then swim back up the river years later to spawn and die. Author Adam Weymouth undertook to honour the lo......more


Quotes

Winner of The Sunday Times/ Peters Fraser+ Dunlop 2018 Young Writer of the Year AwardShortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Ondaatje Prize Named the Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the YearNamed a notable book for the 2018 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award

"[A] brilliant account of a summer spent paddling the 2,000-mile length of the Yukon River...Kings of the Yukon succeeds as an adventure tale, a natural history and a work of art. Its various threads of context and back story are woven seamlessly into the daily panorama of the river journey."β€”Richard Adams Carey, Wall Street Journal

"Weymouth paddled the length of the Yukon River to learn about king salmon. In his eloquent account of his experiences, he sheds light on the life cycle of these magnificent creatures, the complexities of the landscape, and the humans and other animals inhabiting it."β€”San Francisco Chronicle

"Timely...Weymouth's prose is often beautiful, bringing to life the river and its inhabitants."β€”Anchorage Daily News

"It feels as if we have found, ready minted and hidden in plain sight, a really outstanding new contemporary British voice...Weymouth combines acute political, personal and ecological understanding, with the most beautiful writing reminiscent of a young Robert Macfarlane... He is, I have no doubt, a significant voice for the future."

β€”Andrew Holgate, The Sunday Times

"In this lyrical debut, Adam Weymouth canoes the length of the river to watch the fish and meet the communities who have relied on them, but are now struggling as stocks fall."β€”Financial Times

"A dose of adventure and environmental science . . . dynamic"β€”Southern Living, Best New Books to Read in May

"Adam Weymouth writes well. He is poetic, but also precise....This is a rich and fascinating book."β€”Elisa Segrave, The Spectator (UK)

"a richly told history of one of North America's most remote wildernesses"β€”Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"In this timely story 'of relationships, of the symbiosis of people and fish, of the imprint that one leaves on the other,' Weymouth keeps the pages turning to the very end."β€”Kirkus


Awards

  • Edward Stanford Travel Writing award
  • The Young Writer of the Year, PFD/Sunday Times
  • Richard Jefferies Society & White Horse Bookshop L