The Beast in the Clouds
The Roosevelt Brothers's Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
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The Beast in the Clouds
Narrateur(s):
Jacques Roy
Acheter pour 22,19 $
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Narrateur(s):
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Jacques Roy
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Auteur(s):
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Nathalia Holt
À propos de cet audio
“A thrilling work of history that’s wilder than fiction.” —The Washington Post
“[An] immersive, sometimes harrowing account of the siblings’ Himalayan adventure.” —The New York Times
The stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the panda bear to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls.
The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.
By 1928, dozens of expeditions had scoured the Himalayas in search of the panda bear, an animal many believed to be a myth. That year the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt and a small team of scientists and naturalists launched their own dangerous journey. Lost in blizzards, attacked by robbers, ravaged by illness, and cut off from food supplies, the brothers’ crew was pushed to its physical and emotional limits. They would accomplish what years of exploration had not—introducing the panda to the Western world. Along the way, they documented a rapidly disappearing landscape and helped bring about a new era of conservation biology.
In The Beast in the Clouds, Nathalia Holt brings these events to life in a gripping nonfiction thriller about ambition, survival, and the indomitable Roosevelt spirit.
The brothers, sons of a famous name, trekked deep into Sichuan province in search of proof that giant pandas existed. For five long months they trudged through mountains on foot, their provisions carried by mules, collecting other animal specimens as they went. Only after endless hardship did they finally encounter the “beast in the clouds”—and their success came at a tragic cost.
Some details stayed with me: how trying to describe a black-and-white bear to local villagers was like describing a unicorn, or how Holt notes young girls running freely in a village market—something newly possible after the outlawing of foot binding. The book balances adventure with cultural insight, revealing a world on the edge of modernity.
While the Roosevelts’ killing of the first panda they found is deeply unsettling, Holt captures their later regret as they came to understand its gentle nature—content to eat bamboo and harm no one. The global obsession that followed nearly drove the species to extinction, though conservation efforts have since brought them back.
If I had one lingering question, it’s how the panda evolved from hunted curiosity to symbol of international diplomacy. Holt hints at it but doesn’t fully explore that transition. Despite this, the book was still an interesting, if sobering, listen.
The audiobook’s chapters are structured clearly, beginning with opening credits, an epigraph, and a prologue before the numbered chapters.
Audiobook version details (as listed in my Audible library):
The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’s Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
Written by: Nathalia Holt
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
RELEASE DATE 2025-07-01
FORMAT Unabridged Audiobook
LENGTH 7 hrs and 48 mins
PUBLISHER Simon & Schuster Audio
©2025 Nathalia Holt (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio
Interesting and sobering
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odd narration
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