A Thousand Lives

The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown

By: Julia Scheeres

Narrated by: Robin Miles

They left America for the jungles of Guyana to start a better life. Yet what started as a Utopian dream soon devolved into a terrifying work camp run by a madman, ending in the mass murder-suicide of 914 members in November 1978.

In A Thousand Lives, the New York Times best-selling memoirist Julia Scheeres traces the fates of five individuals who followed Jim Jones to South America as they struggled to first build their paradise, and then survive it. Each went for different reasons - some were drawn to Jones for his progressive attitudes towards racial equality, others were dazzled by his claims to be a faith healer. But once in Guyana, Jones' drug addiction, mental decay, and sexual depredations quickly eroded the idealistic community.

For this groundbreaking book, Scheeres examined more than 50,000 pages of newly released documents that the FBI collected from the camp after the massacre - including diaries, crop reports, and letters that were never sent home - as well as hundreds of audiotapes of Jones addressing his group.

Scheeres's own experience at a religious boot camp in the Dominican Republic, detailed in her unforgettable debut memoir Jesus Land, gives her unique insight into this chilling tale.

Haunting and vividly written, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, searing loss.

©2011 Julia Scheeres (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Chilling and heart-wrenching, this is a brilliant testament to Jones's victims, so many of whom were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." ( Publisher's Weekly)

"Scheeres shows great compassion and journalistic skill in reconstructing Jonestown’s last months and the lives of many Temple members (including a few survivors).... [A] well-written, disturbing tale of faith and evil." ( Kirkus)

"Julia Scheeres' A Thousand Lives... tells the tragic tale of Jonestown - in its way, a peculiarly American apocalypse." ( Los Angeles Times)

Well told story!

Where does A Thousand Lives rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top of the line read.

What did you like best about this story?

It was easy to see how the fallowers got sucked in the ways of Jamestown, And Jim's teachings.

What about Robin Miles’s performance did you like?

Robin Miles is very easy to lissen to.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There is know way not to react to this story where so many died becuse of others not stopping what they no was going on.

Interesting

Having been born in 1975 I have only hear references to Jones Town and Drinking the Kool Aid. This book was eye opening and insightful. I feel I have a good understanding of what happened and why. I can now speak intelligently about it to others if needed and I will not use the reference of Drinking the Kool Aid again.

Thorough and fascinating history of People's Templ

I studied cults in graduate school and had a passing familiarity with the history of Jim Jones and the People's Temple. However, this book goes more in depth and brings more life to the members of People's Temple than anything else I've read or watched on the subject. It's a fascinating read and treats the survivors with the respect and dignity that their story deserves.

Well Told

I loved the approach that was taken in the telling of this tragic story. As someone who has seen how subtly manipulative some spiritual leaders can be I certainly appreciated the nuances that we brought forth and the humanity of all those affected.

Sorry Story

I recall the awful events of November 18, 1978 as they played out on the 6 o'clock news, beginning with the seemingly impossible murder of congressman Ryan, three journalists and one temple member on the tarmac at the Kaituma airstrip.
Scheeres outlines in compelling detail the dreadful story of Jim Jones and his bullying of the vulnerable people in his congregation, those trusting, marginalized followers whom he tricked into joining his Guyana enclave. By the time they came to recognize Jones's treachery,
they were his prisoners and ultimately, his victims.
BTW, I disagree with the author's interpretation of the expression "drinking the Kool-Aid". She writes that it refers to one who gullibly accepts a fiction or a condition. The reality is that Jones's armed henchmen forced the helpless people at gunpoint to swallow the lethal drink. Those who refused or fled were shot. Thus, the expression "drinking the Kool-Aid" rapidly came to mean "voluntarily" swallowing a situation over which one has no control anyway.

I was hooked!

I usually listened during my commute. It's so good, I would keep driving around just to continue listening. the narrator did a great job telling a well written story.

An important story

listening to this was both heartbreaking and necessary. the story is important. performance was okay.

Not a typical dry recitation of facts

I was pleasantly surprised at the easy listen that this turned out to be. Told in easy to follow language, several personal stories are told of the followers.

It wasn't written to shock the reader, and it explained how some people were just slowly sucked into the world of Jim Jones, until they were in so deep, it was impossible to retreat.

Excellent personal insight.

There is incredible personal insight here based on the retelling of many first hand accounts by Jonestown survivors and from documents. But I have to say that the narrator brings the experince down for me through her mispronunciation of words such as harass in particular as well as the name of Stephan Jones who she refers to sometimes with an "f" sound and other times with a "v" sound. It took me out of the story several times.

Excellent

One of the very rare books you wish was twice as long. A great entry into the Jonestown historiography.