Synopses & Reviews
What is silence?
Where can it be found?
Why is it now more important than ever?
In 1993, Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge spent 50 days walking solo across Antarctica, becoming the first person to reach the South Pole alone, accompanied only by a radio whose batteries he had removed before setting out. In this book. an astonishing and transformative meditation, Kagge explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. By recounting his own experiences and discussing the observations of poets, artists, and explorers, Kagge shows us why silence is essential to sanity and happiness — and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude.
(With full-color photographs throughout.)
Review
“The book expands the concepts of silence and noise beyond their aural definitions and engages with modern culture’s information overload, need for constant connection, and cult of busyness....Great pleasure lies in Kagge’s creative investigations. The reader leaves more mindful of the swirl of distraction present in everyday life.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Breathtaking and inspiring, it teaches us how to find precious moments of silence — whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or the train at rush hour.” Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth
Review
“Silence braces a space within which we can hear ourselves think. Quietly, wisely, it makes a case for dumbing the din of modern life, and learning to listen again. Drawing on the experiences of Kagge’s extraordinary life in wild places, this is a book of great concentration.” Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
Review
“Searing and soaring....For Kagge, silence is more than the absence of sound: it is the incubator for thought, the conscious eradication of external distraction, and the ability to live in one’s own mind as fully as one lives in the physical world. Infused with powerfully evocative art and photographs that enhance his salient concepts, Kagge’s treatise on this endangered commodity provides an intriguing meditation for mindful readers.” Booklist
About the Author
Explorer, lawyer, art collector, publisher, and author, Erling Kagge is the first person to have completed the Three Poles Challenge on foot — the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest. He has written six previous books on exploration, philosophy, and art collecting, and runs Kagge Forlag, a publishing company based in Oslo, where he lives.
Erling Kagge on PowellsBooks.Blog
After having walked alone to the South Pole for 50 days and nights under the midnight sun without uttering a word, raised my three daughters, worked as a publisher for 21 years, and spent the last 18 months writing the book
Silence in the Age of Noise,
I have come up with the following three observations...
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