Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Week at the Airport

By: Alain De Botton
Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $12.59

Buy for $12.59

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The bestselling author of The Architecture of Happiness and The Art of Travel spends a week at an airport in a wittily intriguing meditation on the "non-place" that he believes is the centre of our civilization.

In the summer of 2009, Alain de Botton was invited by the owners of Heathrow airport to become their first ever writer-in-residence. Given unprecedented, unrestricted access to wander around one of the world's busiest airports, he met travellers from all over the globe, and spoke with everyone from baggage handlers to pilots, and senior executives to the airport chaplain. Based on these conversations he has produced this extraordinary meditation on the nature of travel, work, relationships, and our daily lives. Working with the renowned documentary photographer Richard Baker, he explores the magical and the mundane, and the interactions of travellers and workers all over this familiar but mysterious "non-place," which by definition we are eager to leave. Taking the listener through departures, "air-side," and the arrivals hall, de Botton shows with his usual combination of wit and wisdom that spending time in an airport can be more revealing than we might think.

©2009 Alain De Botton (P)2023 Emblem Editions
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"De Botton's most imaginative work yet"—The Spectator.

"Funny, charming and slender enough to pack in your carry-on."—Daily Mail

"His observations on airport life are wry and thought-provoking . . . excellent."—Telegraph

What listeners say about A Week at the Airport

Average customer ratings

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