Lookout
Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest
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Lookout
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Narrated by:
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Trina Moyles
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Written by:
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Trina Moyles
About this listen
A page-turning memoir about a young woman's grueling, revelatory summers working alone in a remote lookout tower and her eyewitness account of the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire in the Canadian north.
While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers--strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. How could you isolate yourself for that long? she wondered. "I could never do it," she told herself.
Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello's, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job.
Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly--labeled "a domesticated wolf" by her former owners--to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship--and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness--and freedom--that only solitude can deliver.
Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.
©2021 Trina Moyles (P)2021 Penguin Random House CanadaYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARDS IN THE OUTDOOR LITERATURE CATEGORY
FINALIST FOR THE ROBERT KROETSCH CITY OF EDMONTON BOOK PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE ALBERTA LITERARY AWARDS (MEMOIR)
“Moyles tells a totally engrossing story of fear and love, self-recrimination and healing, by turns vivid with memory and presence. Page after page, I felt immersed in the rejuvenating wonders of the natural world, rendered here in all their magnificent, everchanging detail. Reader, you will roar through this book.” (Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe)
“Trina Moyles has written a beautiful, closely observed love letter to the boreal forest and the wilderness of northern Canada at a time when it is threatened by unprecedented change. But Lookout is more than that: it's also a powerful, unforgettable story about the ways that solitude in nature can break us down, and then put us back together again.” (Eva Holland, author of Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear)
“A vital and howling missive of a book. Lookout holds the wide wisdom and fierce beauty of the boreal forest it depicts. Trina Moyles has spent several seasons sitting in the fire, looking into the heat of love, death and regenerated life; experiencing solitude as intensifying tincture. She writes as a wild and erudite witness, bursting with hunger and feral passion for the living world.” (Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation)
What listeners say about Lookout
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Tinitree
- 2022-06-06
I didn't want it to end
I learned so much and got so involved in this story. I found myself wondering about things when not listening. The story about her various romances were beautifully intertwined with the story of the fire tower. I hope she releases a book about her African experience as well.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2024-08-20
Absolutely Fantastic!
Incredibly enjoyable book! It was informative, heartfelt and beautifully written. Trina is not only a fantastic author, but an incredible narrator. Anyone who loves nature and the north must read/listen to this book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Megyn
- 2024-02-28
Outstanding Memoir
Couldn't stop listening! Definitely wasn't ready for it to end. Great narration by the author, you can really feel her emotions.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- sapir
- 2022-09-13
Best immersion in a fire lookout life
I completely forgotten my routine while listening to Trina's audio book. A different lifestyle explained with a beautiful voice. I highly recommend it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- cedar
- 2023-10-20
Enlightening
What a powerful real accounting of such a vital work. I am inspired. Thank you Trina
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rhianna Lindsay
- 2021-04-22
A wild love story.
A beautiful story about the unexpected ways we fall in love.
Love of the wild, love of solitude, love for others, love for ourselves, and the love of dog.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-06-25
Binge-Listened, will-do every season I reckon
I so enjoyed immersing myself in this audiobook. This book should be on the shelf at every lookout and in every headset but also an absolute must for anyone who is connected to the Lookouts world in a more peripheral manner. If you want to be a lookout, this book could also help prepare you a bit. The journey the writer weaves is Sweet/sorrowful, mellow/exasperating, scientific/mystical, comical/emotional, romantic/heartbreaking. It was such a great listen!! I liked the ebb and flow between the authors life as a lookout, life in the off season relating to the lookout and then all of the references to various wildfires in Alberta and the world. this is a really well done memoir that I will come back to season after season.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Linda
- 2021-04-11
A breath of fresh air
I enjoyed the book. The author took me on a wild ride to a world I knew nothing about.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Maxwell
- 2022-05-09
Fabulous, I won’t forget Moyles voice or words
Lookout is a deeply touching and insightful, book. On one hand a heart aching description of the ups and downs of figuring out who we are, but also a detailed, stunning picture of life as a fire lookout in Canada’s north, the frightening reality of wild fires and their increasing impact with a warming climate and the importance and value of being deeply connected to nature. Trina writes beautifully, with incredible honesty and humour. This book reached me in so many ways and it will stay with me for a very long time. I loved that we get to listen to her voice, she does a fantastic job making it absolutely authentic - she is a funny, thoughtful and incredibly brave soul that I hope will keep writing. We need her books, Women Who Dig was very different but also very well done.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Barry
- 2021-04-15
Achingly beautiful memoir
Lookout is on the surface a memoir of of troubled soul seeking solace and space by accepting a job as a fire tower lookout deep in the northern boreal forest. It is however so much more than that. With brutal honesty Moyles examines the triumphs and struggles in her life while at the same time giving us insight into the amazing ecosystem she so carefully observed and patrolled for wildfires. An ecosystem at increasing risk due to climate change and human encroachment.
Through that lens, she turns a keen eye to themes of love, loss, isolation, solitude and ultimately meaning and healing. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
Read by the author whose meditative voice strikes just the right note for her poetic prose. A welcome addition to the pantheon of the best of Canadian wildlife literature.
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