
The Golden Spruce
A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
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Narrated by:
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Edoardo Ballerini
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By:
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John Vaillant
About this listen
A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: The only giant golden spruce on earth.
As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work.
When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island, they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell.
The tree, a fascinating puzzle to scientists, was sacred to the Haida, a fierce seafaring tribe based in the Queen Charlottes. Vaillant recounts the bloody history of the Haida and the early fur trade, and provides harrowing details of the logging industry, whose omnivorous violence would claim both Hadwin and the golden spruce.
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Dear Publishers of Audio Books
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Instant favorite
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Lyrical and Powerful
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Fascinating history
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excellent story, narrated beautifully
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Vaillant is a master!
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Inspiring book and flawless audio
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What made the experience of listening to The Golden Spruce the most enjoyable?
I love this audio book! It's easily one of my top 5 favorites. The story is terrific, the writing is wonderful and the performance is a perfect match for the text. This is one of the very few audio books I have listened to 3 times.What other book might you compare The Golden Spruce to and why?
Boy's in the Boat. Unbroken. Seabiscuit. The TigerWhat about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?
His voice is wonderful and he seamlessly takes the listener into the world of the story.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
not quiteOne of my all time favorites!
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Terrific
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FABULOUS STORY
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“800 years to grow and 25 minutes to cut down” really puts into perspective how invaluable our wooded resources are. Yet as the book goes into there have been early “environmentalists” publishing such a forecast 100’s of years before.
An excellent dive into a pnw story that was new to me!
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