The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
Club: $8.75

The Snow Leopard

Author: Peter Matthiessen

Narrator: Peter Matthiessen

Abridged: 7 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 04/08/2014


Synopsis

An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas...

IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

About The Author

Peter Matthiessen was the cofounder of the Paris Review and is the author of numerous works of nonfiction, including In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Indian Country, and The Snow Leopard, winner of the National Book Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on July 23, 2022

I have taken months since reading this book to finally write this (long) review: Here's some selections from the book to begin, so you can see Peter Matthiessen's spirit, his Buddhist nature, and his love of language, without my intervention or commentary: “The secret of the mountain is that the mount......more

Goodreads review by Michael on May 29, 2018

This is a beautiful book about a personal and physical journey in Nepal by Peter Matthiessen. It is also a spiritual journey where the goal becomes completely interiorized by the author as it progresses. A wonderful book for meditation on higher values in these times of, well, no values.......more

Goodreads review by Grace on August 09, 2008

I really took my time with this book. I didn't want to be disturbed by the sounds of subway trains, interrupted by phone calls or daily trivialities. This wasn't a read I just 'fit in' but truly savored. And oh, my heart hurts a little now that it is over. It is a slow book, and thus may not appeal......more

Goodreads review by Paul on January 20, 2024

The snow leopard, Panthera uncla, is a rare and elusive animal. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as a “threatened” species; it is estimated that fewer than 10,000 snow leopards survive in the wild, and their numbers have been steadily reduced by poaching and habitat......more


Quotes

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“My favorite record of an animal voyage is a book that’s fluent in failure, Peter Matthiessen’s nonfiction masterpiece The Snow Leopard . . . the great perfect shock of The Snow Leopard is that Matthiessen never actually sees a snow leopard . . . that failure becomes a powerful lesson in loss, a chance to meditate on the tangled nature of visibility and invisibility.” —Sam Anderson, The New York Times Magazine

“A masterpiece that exceeds the boundaries of the travel genre and envelops you with its incredible prose.” —Wall Street Journal

“Stunning . . . Fiercely felt and magnificently written . . . [Matthiessen] has expressed with uncommon candor and no prospect of relief, a longing which keeps the soul striving and alert in us all.” —Washington Post

“A magical book, a kind of lunar paradigm and map of the sacred.” —The Nation

“A beautiful, magnificent book that gives off at once the resonance of a classic . . . One of the most wonderful accountsI know of journeying in our time.” —W. S. Merwin