Horizon

By: Barry Lopez

Narrated by: James Naughton

One of the Best Books of the Year:
The New York Times • NPR • The Guardian

From pole to pole and across decades of lived experience, National Book Award-winning author Barry Lopez delivers his most far-ranging, yet personal, work to date. Horizon moves indelibly, immersively, through the author’s travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Along the way, Lopez probes the long history of humanity’s thirst for exploration, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in Northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today’s ecotourists in the tropics. And always, throughout his journeys to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world.

©2019 Barry Lopez (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"At once reverie and urgent appeal, Horizon is beautiful and brutal - a story of the universal human condition, set in some of the most distinctive places on earth. Lopez [searches] both memory and meticulously recorded field notes, mining accumulated wisdom, seeking glimmers of hope. One of the strongest messages in Horizon is that without learning to embrace diversity, without listening to the tales told by cultures other than our own, we risk obliteration. Lopez’s reverence for exploring every corner of the world is infectious, [and] his knack for making friends in the most unlikely places resonates long after you turn the last page. ‘Are we not bound,’ he asks, ‘to learn how to speak with each other?'" (The New York Times Book Review)

"Sublime, dreamlike. One of America’s foremost naturalist writers, Lopez is a welcoming host as he brings you across the world.... Above all else, he wants us to consider. To find context and connections. To think about where to go from here. To take our time. Horizon is a contemplation of Lopez’s belief that the only way forward is compassionately, and together." (NPR)

"Beautifully composed [with] steady intellectual rigor - a capacious blend of popular science, travel writing and autobiography. There is no discernable limit to Lopez's curiosity: he writes with equal enthusiasm about human origins, the search for the edge of the expanding universe, classical music, arctic archaeology, Impressionist painting and Aboriginal rock art. He is at his best writing about natural history, where his scrupulous research and talent for lucid exposition make the business of scientific fieldwork come alive. The book is rendered with gorgeous prose, and spiked with humor.... Extraordinary." (The Wall Street Journal)

Beautiful narration of poetic, rich and deeply thought-provoking pros

Bravo. The work itself is beautifully meandering thought-provoking mix of history, science and spirituality. Poetic but not too dense.

The narrator truly nails it as well. Just enough emphasis without affecting the original. Great voice!

Amazing bedtime listening.

Barry Lopez reflects on his life

While the storyline is confusing Barry’s reflection, on his time on planet earth is compelling and worth reading.

Awesome Education. will read again

an awesome education. compelling from beginning to end. will read again to learn more than I could get in first pass

An excellent storyteller

My first Barry Lopez book but it won’t be my last. Arctic Dreams is next on my list. The reader had the perfect pitch to convey the thoughts of the author.

Commentary on human impact on the world without bias.

Scholarly recounting of travels to extremely remote places expressed how humans and animals dealt with an unfriendly climate. His observations and opinions painted a vivid picture.

Fabulous!

Insightful, wonderful, thoughtful, incredible piece of writing! Highly recommend this book. it's a long listen, 23 hours, and there is a lot to absorb, but well worth it.

Touching the Horizon

Not only a poignant autobiography, but a tale of nature’s wonders. Written poetically, yet accessible as conversational prose, the book spans Lopez’s travels over his life around the globe. It is like knowing someone who relates tales and travels so moving and insightful that you wish the narrative would never end. I highly recommend it. Ernie

some slow parts but overall wonderful

enjoyed the dry but effective narration which fit the detached but awe filled narrative. enjoy

HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL

As a first exposure to Barry Lopez’s writing, “Horizon” is a disturbing review of the state of nature. There is a “Let It Be” determinism in Lopez’s memoir of travels around the world.

There seems little rage in “Horizon” about the decline of earth’s environment. Particularly in comparison to Greta Thunberg’s accusations against spoilers of the world. Of course, Lopez is in his 70 s. Thunberg is 16. Her generation is more likely to feel the consequence of world’ ecological change. One doubts pessimism is the intent of Lopez’s recollections. But pessimism is a sense some may get from a 23-hour narration of “Horizon”.

Lopez writes about Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the arbitrariness of genetic selection that sustains human life. Lopez holds the view that Darwin’s theory may be key to human’s future survival.

Lopez infers a chance genetic modification will seed human survival as the world ecological system changes. Lopez notes many civilizations are gone; others are headed for extinction. Today, human advancement is a product of greed and self-interest. Tomorrow, human advancement may be dependent on love and care for others.

Lopez leaves a slender hope that the evolution of human beings will rescue humanity. He is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Lopez suggests the world will go on, but humans may be the sixth extinction. The question is—is it up to us, fate, nature, or a Supreme Being?

Wise and important

Barry Lopez is not just an astoundingly learned polymath. He is a wise elder, whose meditations on places and peoples and history need to be absorbed and heeded.