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The Drowned Places
- Author
- Damian Le Bas
- Narrator
- Damian Le Bas
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 17 April 2025
- Run Time
- 9 hours 53 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Entranced by history and myth, captivated by the wonders of nature, Damian Le Bas explores the meaning we find in sunken ruins around the world
Thousands of years ago, an island off the Straits of Gibraltar went to war with Athens. The battle was lost, and overnight the island sank beneath the waves – or so legend tells.
As a boy, Damian Le Bas was captivated by the story of Atlantis. As an adult, he dreams of diving to discover its ruins. After the death of his father, torn between his lifelong desire and the taboo Romany culture places on the ocean, he comes across a dive shop. He can’t help but go in.
Under the waves, Damian enters a breathtaking world. As he masters the skills of this exhilarating sport, diving with seals in the Farne Islands, exploring submerged Roman ruins in Naples and mapping the sunken city of Port Royal, he is entranced by wonders both man-made and natural.
Plato's writings on Atlantis were a parable about the hubris of humankind; in witnessing our effects on oceans and ocean communities, Damian finds echoes of this in the modern world.
A spellbinding love letter to diving, The Drowned Places is also a profound examination of the power that myth has over us, and what happens when it crosses over into reality.
'The most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys' KATE HUMBLE
'Breathtakingly good' TRISTAN GOOLEY
'The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read' MENSUN BOUND
© Damian Le Bas 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
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Beautifully written…The Drowned Places is one of the best books on diving that I have ever read
Literary Review
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Le Bas is a fine, vivid writer… I've read few better descriptions of the contradictions of the sport, its wonder and its terror, its grace and its absurdity
Sunday Telegraph
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A very good book. THE book about diving I couldn’t find a few years ago: giving both the technicalities and the wonder
AMY LIPTROT
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Le Bas goes on a compelling dual journey in this book, both historical and personal. His curiosity brings the ancient myths and stark realities of the ocean vividly to life. A various, rich exploration
SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn
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I loved this book - a wonderful interweaving of diving and exploration with coming to terms with grief, beautifully written and endlessly fascinating. One of the best books that I have read in a long time
DAVID GIBBINS, author of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks
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Beautiful and thought provoking
TLS
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[Le Bas] writes well about grief, finding rich metaphors in each submarine landscape
Spectator
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Loss, risk, adventure and redemption. Le Bas has written the most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys
KATE HUMBLE, author of A Year of Living Simply
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An enthralling exploration of the liminal by one of the most exciting writers around. A breathtakingly good book
TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of How to Read a Tree
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The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read. But it is not about diving as a sport; it is about diving as an accessway to submerged landscapes, the festival of life that inhabits them and, above all, the drowned ruins of lost civilisations
MENSUN BOUND, author of The Ship Beneath the Ice
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Damian Le Bas
- Narrator
- Damian Le Bas
- Duration
- 9 hours 53 minutes
- Release Date
- 17 April 2025
- ISBN
- 9781529959123
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Autobiography: adventurers and explorers, Memoirs, Travel writing, Swimming and diving, Folklore studies / Study of myth, Nature and the natural world: general interest
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.Entranced by history and myth, captivated by the wonders of nature, Damian Le Bas explores the meaning we find in sunken ruins around the worldThousands of years ago, an island off the Straits of Gibraltar went to war with Athens. The battle was lost, and overnight the island sank beneath the waves – or so legend tells.As a boy, Damian Le Bas was captivated by the story of Atlantis. As an adult, he dreams of diving to discover its ruins. After the death of his father, torn between his lifelong desire and the taboo Romany culture places on the ocean, he comes across a dive shop. He can’t help but go in.Under the waves, Damian enters a breathtaking world. As he masters the skills of this exhilarating sport, diving with seals in the Farne Islands, exploring submerged Roman ruins in Naples and mapping the sunken city of Port Royal, he is entranced by wonders both man-made and natural.Plato's writings on Atlantis were a parable about the hubris of humankind; in witnessing our effects on oceans and ocean communities, Damian finds echoes of this in the modern world.A spellbinding love letter to diving, The Drowned Places is also a profound examination of the power that myth has over us, and what happens when it crosses over into reality.'The most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys' KATE HUMBLE'Breathtakingly good' TRISTAN GOOLEY'The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read' MENSUN BOUND© Damian Le Bas 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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