
River of the Gods
Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
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Narrated by:
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Paul Michael
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By:
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Candice Millard
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The harrowing story of one of the great feats of exploration of all time and its complicated legacy—from the New York Times bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST • GOODREADS
"A lean, fast-paced account of the almost absurdly dangerous quest by [Richard Burton and John Speke] to solve the geographic riddle of their era."—The New York Times Book Review
For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe–and extend their colonial empires.
Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs.
From the start the two men clashed. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke’s great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate, Speke shot himself.
Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan’s army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguistic prowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without Bombay and men like him, who led, carried, and protected the expedition, neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived.
In River of the Gods Candice Millard has written another peerless story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers.
©2022 Candice Millard (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
New York Times Bestseller • A Best Book of the Year: WASHINGTON POST, NPR, GOODREADS, BOOKPAGE, Audible • One of The Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction • One of Smithsonian’s 10 best History Books of 2022 •
“River of the Gods is a lean, fast-paced account of the almost absurdly dangerous quest by [Richard Burton and John Speke] to solve the geographic riddle of their era. . . Candice Millard has earned her legions of admirers. She is a graceful writer and a careful researcher, and she knows how to navigate a tangled tale.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Millard’s research and very readable storytelling are admirable. . . Ultimately, the identity of the person who first discovered the source of the White Nile may be a trivial matter. Ms. Millard conscientiously investigates the issue, of course, but River of the Gods is compelling because she does justice to the psyches and behavior of Burton and Speke—keenly flawed but enthralling, sometimes marvelous people.”—Wall Street Journal
“Millard recounts all of these travails with a fluid grace that wears its learning lightly.”—The Washington Post
Featured Article: Best of the Year—The 12 Best History Listens of 2022
We’ve noticed—and applaud—a trend in our members' preferences for history: Audible listeners want to hear about events of the past with both discipline and nuance. You want authoritative synthesis and reliable facts, but also to hear about people's lived experience, preferably in novelistic detail. And all of us love some juicy reconstruction from time to time. This year, we picked the best performances to fill that tall order.
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As for the story... well, Alan Moorehead's durable 1960 classic "The White Nile" is more brilliant and exciting and thorough (and his "The Blue Nile" an even better read.). But Millard does a very good job with the material, giving more emphasis to the conflict between Burton and Speke than Moorehead did.
This is a good, popularized account of the events surrounding the search for the source of the Nile, and I think anyone would find it to be a good read. And it will especially appeal to people with personal knowledge of that part of the world.
Excellent. Story and Performance both Outstanding
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Amazing
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Fascinating story and people
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Great reader, great book
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Love this book!
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Fascinating story
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Another Millard Masterpiece
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High drama
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Excellentt, View on the explorers of imperialism
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My listening experience, however, was diminished by the narrator. The narrator is gifted at accents and vocal tones. That made it easy for him to assign each subject person a specific accent and voice. But flipping back and forth to patrician British accents, French accents, mis-pronouncing Spanish accents...it was too much...was very distracting and in some segments cartoonish. A good narrator can convey the change in person with great subtlety. Here, I fault both the actor and the director for not trusting the listener and exercising such strong and blatant acting rather than just narrating.
A story of man's explorations
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