Preview
  • The Wisdom of Donkeys

  • Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World
  • By: Andy Merrifield
  • Narrated by: Peter Johnson
  • Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (35 ratings)

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.

The Wisdom of Donkeys

By: Andy Merrifield
Narrated by: Peter Johnson
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.86

Buy for $18.86

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 demon of speed is often associated with forgetting, with avoidance...and slowness with memory and confronting," observes Milan Kundera in his novel Slowness.

With that purpose in mind - a search for slowness and tranquility - Andy Merrifield sets out on a journey of the soul with a friend's donkey, Gribouille, to walk amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of southern France's Haute-Auvergne. As Merrifield contemplates literature, science, truth, and beauty amid the French countryside, Gribouille surprises him with his subtle wisdom, reminding him time and again that enlightenment is all around us if we but seek it.

©2008 Andy Merrifield (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Featured Article: Roll Out the Red Carpet for 2023's Award Season Listening Recommendations


Awards season is now upon us, with some of cinema's most gifted directors, actors, cinematographers, screenwriters, composers, costume and VFX artists, and beyond being rightly recognized for their talents and contributions to art and film over the past year. Here are some listening recommendations to keep you company while you place your bets on those winner brackets and plan that Best Picture-themed charcuterie board for your awards night soiree.

What listeners say about The Wisdom of Donkeys

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4

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

Love

A must listen. I purchased the hard copy as well. My adult kids will get this for Christmas

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
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely Text

This text was a wonderful look into the history and inner “workings” of an endearing creature, the donkey. I wish that there had been a different narrator as this one did not bring to the text what it deserved. It was read as a though it was a newspaper listing rather than the thoughtful perspective of the author.

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

Eternal Wisdom

I had a hard time getting started but like most things I should read and hear,it was worth the effort. Too late for me to get a donkey but not too late to internalize the wisdom.

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
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

definitely donkey wisdom

this book is so very interesting to anyone interested in learning about doggies and a little bit about France. I'm not sure if the narrator was chosen on purpose for the monotone.. you know to seem like a donkey.. but it was very difficult to listen to this story with so little expression.. if there was any in the reader's voice. I'm going to actually buy the book and print so I can read it to myself! with feeling!😎

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Very 'meh'

I love donkeys, I love travelogues, I love books about unusual journeys taken on foot. So you'd think I was the perfect audience for this book. But it didn't really succeed. There are some interesting facts about donkeys provided, although the facts come with a hefty side of philosophizing about their natures. Or observations like "there is something tremendously democratic about a donkeys tail" and then some nonsense about Andrew Jackson.

As a travelogue it is oddly non-specific. He is in France, specifically Auvergne, but we don't get a lot of detail about where exactly he is and how long he is gone for. I mean, people write books all the time about leaving the city to get away from the noise and the frenetic pace. The author is leaving behind NYC and London but is his journey with donkey a months' long pilgrimage, a single month's long or just a few days? If the reader were to find herself inspired by the journey and want to imitate it, how would she do this? What exactly is their route? Here I remember reading a book about a man who does the Camino de Santiago with a donkey. Maybe I should go back to that book?

Anyway, donkeys in and of themselves are more awesome than this book.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

boring

Written in prose style the author goes on forever about the settings of his environments that has nothing to do with donkeys. One of the most boring books I have ever read.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!