Silence cover art

Silence

In the Age of Noise

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Silence

By: Erling Kagge
Narrated by: Atli Gunnarsson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Silence by Erling Kagge, read by Atli Gunnarsson.

Behind a cacophony of traffic noise, iPhone alerts and our ever-spinning thoughts, an elusive notion - silence - lies in wait. But what really is silence? Where can it be found? And why is it more important now than ever?

Erling Kagge, the Norwegian adventurer and polymath, once spent fifty days walking solo in Antarctica with a broken radio. In this meditative, charming and surprisingly powerful book, he explores the power of silence and the importance of shutting out the world. Whether you're in deep wilderness, taking a shower or on the dance floor, you can experience perfect stillness if you know where to look. And from it grows self-knowledge, gratitude, wonder and much more.

Take a deep breath, and prepare to submerge yourself in Silence. Your own South Pole is out there, somewhere.

©2017 Erling Kagge (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Adventure Travel Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Consciousness & Thought Polar Regions Spirituality Adventure
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

World Enough & Time cover art
The Wild Places cover art
Follow Your Heart cover art
The Glass Bead Game cover art
The Power of Silence cover art
Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life cover art
Stars at Night cover art
Already Here cover art
The Inner Game of Tennis cover art
What We Owe the Future cover art
The Molecule of More cover art
The Call cover art
Notes on Blindness cover art
The Socrates Express cover art
The Art of Stillness cover art
The Space Within: Finding Your Way Back Home cover art

Critic reviews

As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted. This breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour (Sir Ranulph Fiennes)
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)

What listeners say about Silence

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    82
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    65
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    65
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A really interesting book about silence

Whilst this doesn’t really offer how to bring silence into your life it does offer a lot of insight into why silence is so important.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A short but charming antidote to busy modern life

The irony of beginning this winsome little audiobook on a smartphone, straining to hear the narrator on an oppressively noisy tube train isn’t lost on me…but fortunately I decided to postpone my listening for another, quieter, time. I’m glad I persevered, as Erling Kagge has produced a thoughtful meditation on the important – and often ignored – role of silence in our hectic, noisy modern lives. Since finishing this collection of charming anecdotes from the author’s life, I’ve worked to pay attention to the rare moments of quiet and embrace them. My phone has never spent less time by my side.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating

The gentle narration combined with the almost hypnotising content, made this a valued companion during lock down for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

silence it has more meaning behind the word

I was greatly enthralled by this Audible book. had to listen right through. I related to some of the philosophy which is very deep. I thoroughly enjoyed listening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very insightful

short sharp chapters, very thought provoking. even if you only take some of the points away, you will feel better with your own silence

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

.

. . . what a perfect book to listen to on New Year's Eve. . .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Weirdest voiceover but an interesting book

Not personal to the VO, but i struggled with the voice - quite robotic. However a really interesting read :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listening to this felt like meditation...

It can seem like the ware of a credit on such a short audiobook but it is so worth it. The narration suited the topic and the few sound effects were apt. This is a book to be revisited many times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Shhh and listen

This book is a series of short essays around the theme of silence. Pascal once said, and the quote is to be found in this book, “the problem with man is that his inability to sit in a room in silence for more than 15 minutes“ or something along those lines. What I liked about this book is it it made me think about how much I sometimes crave silence, particularly in the world that is becoming more obsessed by sound and noise all the time. Once upon a time your grandparents might hear Beethoven‘s fifth once in their life, now I can access it every day on a YouTube video on my phone for free. And perhaps in that we lose something. One of the things I truly love is going for a walk, perhaps not to the South Pole like the author, but you can still find your own silence and peace in nature which allows your mind to become free and untethered. And that’s what I got from this book, this book is short but quite profound and philosophical look at why we should strive for more silence in our lives. The audiobook also features sound effects that play on your ears. It made the listen even more rewarding. I also liked the description that sound is movement in air, that obviously we detect with our ears.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!