Audio only
Chesapeake Requiem
A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier IslandBy Earl SwiftNarrated by Tom ParksLength12h 51m
About this audiobook
A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Bloomberg, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, Science Friday, and Kirkus
"BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING AND TRUE." — Hampton Sides • “GORGEOUS. A TRULY REMARKABLE BOOK.” — Beth Macy • "GRIPPING. FANTASTIC." — Outside • "CAPTIVATING." — Washington Post • "POWERFUL." — Bill McKibben • "VIVID. HARROWING AND MOVING." — Science • "A MASTERFUL NARRATIVE." — Christian Science Monitor • "THE BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR." — Stephen L. Carter/Bloomberg
A Washington Post bestseller • An Indie Next List selection •An NPR All Things Considered and Axios "Book Club" pick
Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. They are separated from their countrymen by the nation’s largest estuary, and a twelve-mile boat trip across often tempestuous water—the same water that for generations has made Tangier’s fleet of small fishing boats a chief source for the rightly prized Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and has lent the island its claim to fame as the softshell crab capital of the world.
Yet for all of its long history, and despite its tenacity, Tangier is disappearing. The very water that has long sustained it is erasing the island day by day, wave by wave. It has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850, and still its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year—meaning this storied place will likely succumb first among U.S. towns to the effects of climate change. Experts reckon that, barring heroic intervention by the federal government, islanders could be forced to abandon their home within twenty-five years. Meanwhile, the graves of their forebears are being sprung open by encroaching tides, and the conservative and deeply religious Tangiermen ponder the end times.
Chesapeake Requiem is an intimate look at the island’s past, present and tenuous future, by an acclaimed journalist who spent much of the past two years living among Tangier’s people, crabbing and oystering with its watermen, and observing its long traditions and odd ways. What emerges is the poignant tale of a world that has, quite nearly, gone by—and a leading-edge report on the coming fate of countless coastal communities.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Travel, Other
Length12 hrs 51 mins
Narrated byTom Parks
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 7, 2018
LanguageEnglish
More from Earl Swift
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5 (1)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Red RecordIda B. Wells-Barnett2h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
LES MISERABLES (Illustrated Edition)Victor Hugo66h 17m$1 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m$28 · $0.00
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Edward Gibbon179h 45m$2 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m$29 · $0.00
Around the World in 60 SecondsNuseir Yassin7h 48m$26 · $0.00
Sailing Alone Around the WorldJoshua Slocum5h 24m$2 · $0.00
The Midwest Survival GuideCharlie Berens6h 6m$24 · $0.00
Local WondersTed Kooser6h 21m$14 · $0.00
A Haunted Road AtlasChristine Schiefer, Em Schulz6h 46m$17
Over the Edge of the WorldLaurence Bergreen6h 14m$24 · $0.00
The Worst Journey in the WorldApsley Cherry-Garrard20h 5m$32
What Really Happened In WuhanSharri Markson16h 28m$40 · $0.00
American RambleNeil King10h 58m$29 · $0.00
New York Nico's Guide to NYCNew York Nico4h 44m$20 · $0.00
In The Footsteps Of RamaVikrant Pande, Neelesh Kulkarni9h 45m$16 · $0.00
The Old WaysRobert Macfarlane11h 23m$20
Scott’s Last ExpeditionRobert Falcon Scott18h 35m$32
Never Leave the Dogs BehindBrianna Madia5h 37m$24 · $0.00
A Cook's TourAnthony Bourdain5h 50m$28 · $0.00
A Night to RememberWalter Lord5h 20m$14
The Mountains of California (Illustrated Edition)John Muir10h 1m$1 · $0.00
Touch the Top of the WorldErik Weihenmayer11h 18m$20 · $0.00
Mud, Sweat, and TearsBear Grylls9h 25m$29 · $0.00
Tokyo JunkieRobert Whiting11h 50m$23
The Book of Proverbs (2020 Edition)Brian Simmons4h 48m$10 · $0.00
PAW Patrol - Volume 16Unknown Author57m$7
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m$3 · $0.00
KJV Holy BibleBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC96h 16m$10 · $0.00
Everyday Chanakya | Time Management S01E08Radhakrishnan Pillai42m$4
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m5 (1)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m$11 · $0.00
Be Wild Be FreeAmber Fossey26m$7 · $0.00
The Gospel According To MatthewMatthew3h 7m$12 · $0.00
My Favorite Husband, Vol. 1Hollywood 360, CBS Radio5h 40m$14
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseCharlie Mackesy58m$11 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m$18 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m5 (1)$40 · $0.00
You may also like
The Last Fish TaleMark Kurlansky6h 20m$14
O Pioneers!Willa Cather5h 51m$2.30
The Book of HusbandryAnthony Fitzherbert6h$2 · $0.00
Small farmers for a food system transition: Evidence from Kenya and TanzaniaNunzia Borrelli, Patrick Ndakidemi4h 4m$11
Hans Brinker (Illustrated Edition)Mary Mapes Dodge9h 36m$2 · $0.00
Five Little Bush GirlsE. Lee Ryan5h 38m$2 · $0.00
The WoodlandersThomas Hardy14h 56m$19 · $0.00
A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, VirginiaSherryl Woods4h 26m$16 · $0.00
On Our SelectionSteele Rudd5h 25m$2 · $0.00
The Hopi IndiansWalter Hough6h 52m$2 · $0.00
Field Notes from a Waterborne LandParimal Bhattacharya10h 19m$29 · $0.00
Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles Illustrated and Applied in Farm LifeGeo. T. Fairchild11h 24m$2 · $0.00
A Shepherd's Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs (Summarized Edition)W. H. Hudson3h 34m$2
The Raid from Beausejour; and How the Carter Boys Lifted the MortgageSir Charles G. D. Roberts3h 3m$1 · $0.00
Ruthless TideAl Roker8h 28m$26 · $0.00
CranfordElizabeth Gaskell11h 5m$2 · $0.00
On Our SelectionSteele Rudd4h 26m$20
Nowhere Better Than HereSarah Guillory6h 10m$17
At home in the SmokiesWilma Dykeman, James Stokely4h 34m$2 · $0.00
The Worst Hard TimeTimothy Egan12h 57m$33 · $0.00