
No Friend but the Mountains
Writing from Manus Prison
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $25.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
About this listen
WINNER OF THE ABIA AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR 2020
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric firsthand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.
At the time of recording, Behrouz was still being held on Manus Island. Normally the author is given the opportunity to read his own words but because he was not able to participate, a chorus of advocates have come together to speak not so much for Behrouz but with him.
Narrated by Richard Flanagan, Mathilda Imlah, Geoffrey Robertson, Janet Galbraith, Thomas Keneally, Sarah Dale, Yumi Stynes, Isobelle Carmody, Benjamin Law and Omid Tofighian.
Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains....
People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests....
Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?
Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Literature and the Prize for Non-Fiction 2019
Winner of the NSW Premier's Award 2019
Winner of the Abia General Fiction Book of the Year 2019
Winner of the National Biography Award 2019
Inaugural Winner of the Behrouz Boochani Award for Services to Anthropology
Finalist for the Terzani Prize 2020
Longlisted for the Colin Roderick Literary Award 2019
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Best Strangers in the World
- Stories from a Life Spent Listening
- By: Ari Shapiro
- Narrated by: Ari Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad.
-
-
Interesting life…….
- By Amy birnbach on 06-05-23
By: Ari Shapiro
-
Dopesick
- By: Beth Macy
- Narrated by: Beth Macy
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.
-
-
Useful, but recommend Dreamland instead
- By Sarah on 08-27-18
By: Beth Macy
-
MeatEater's Campfire Stories: Close Calls
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella, the Contributors
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Campfire Stories: Close Calls, Steven Rinella invites seasoned hunters, anglers, adventurers, and outdoor professionals to share their tales of perilous adventures in the natural world, from run-ins with black bears and grizzlies to bad falls and severe hypothermia.
-
-
Incredible
- By Jay Sellmer on 07-20-21
By: Steven Rinella
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
The Line Becomes a River
- Dispatches from the Border
- By: Francisco Cantú
- Narrated by: Francisco Cantú
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: His mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the patrol for civilian life.
-
-
A necessary read, I am thankful for
- By LB on 02-10-18
By: Francisco Cantú
-
Four Souls & Tracks
- Two Novels
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the world of interconnected novels by Louise Erdrich, Four Souls is most closely linked to Tracks. All these works continue and elaborate on the intricate story of life on a reservation peopled by saints and false saints, heroes and sinners, clever fools and tenacious women. Louise Erdrich reminds us of the deep spirituality and the ordinary humanity of this world, and these works are as beautiful and lyrical as anything she has written.
-
-
Tracks and Four Souls
- By Judith Seaboyer on 01-27-05
By: Louise Erdrich
-
The Best Strangers in the World
- Stories from a Life Spent Listening
- By: Ari Shapiro
- Narrated by: Ari Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad.
-
-
Interesting life…….
- By Amy birnbach on 06-05-23
By: Ari Shapiro
-
Dopesick
- By: Beth Macy
- Narrated by: Beth Macy
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.
-
-
Useful, but recommend Dreamland instead
- By Sarah on 08-27-18
By: Beth Macy
-
MeatEater's Campfire Stories: Close Calls
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella, the Contributors
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Campfire Stories: Close Calls, Steven Rinella invites seasoned hunters, anglers, adventurers, and outdoor professionals to share their tales of perilous adventures in the natural world, from run-ins with black bears and grizzlies to bad falls and severe hypothermia.
-
-
Incredible
- By Jay Sellmer on 07-20-21
By: Steven Rinella
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
The Line Becomes a River
- Dispatches from the Border
- By: Francisco Cantú
- Narrated by: Francisco Cantú
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: His mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the patrol for civilian life.
-
-
A necessary read, I am thankful for
- By LB on 02-10-18
By: Francisco Cantú
-
Four Souls & Tracks
- Two Novels
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the world of interconnected novels by Louise Erdrich, Four Souls is most closely linked to Tracks. All these works continue and elaborate on the intricate story of life on a reservation peopled by saints and false saints, heroes and sinners, clever fools and tenacious women. Louise Erdrich reminds us of the deep spirituality and the ordinary humanity of this world, and these works are as beautiful and lyrical as anything she has written.
-
-
Tracks and Four Souls
- By Judith Seaboyer on 01-27-05
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Endure
- How to Work Hard, Outlast, and Keep Hammering
- By: Cameron Hanes
- Narrated by: Cameron Hanes, David Goggins, Joe Rogan
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cameron Hanes discovered his true passion for bowhunting when he was twenty. Inspired by the physical challenges of stalking elk in the Oregon wilderness—traversing mountainous terrain, braving erratic weather, and evading his quarry’s even more dangerous predators—he began an ever-evolving journey of self-improvement. To become the best bowhunter of wild elk, to the caliber he believed he could be, Cam realized he would need more than archery skills.
-
-
Garbage
- By JP Flouret on 05-22-22
By: Cameron Hanes
-
If We Burn
- The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
- By: Vincent Bevins
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. IF WE BURN is a stirring work of history built around a single, vital question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?
-
-
The final word on horizontalism on the left
- By Patrick Foote on 02-25-24
By: Vincent Bevins
-
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
- The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
-
-
Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
-
Buddhism Without Beliefs
- A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
- By: Stephen Batchelor
- Narrated by: Stephen Batchelor
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before it was a religion, a culture, or even a system of meditation, what was Buddhism? On Buddhism Without Beliefs, celebrated teacher, translator, and former Buddhist monk Stephen Batchelor takes us back to the first years after the Buddha's awakening to reveal the root insights of Buddhism hidden beneath centuries of history and interpretation.
-
-
Disingenuous.
- By Zoltan on 04-15-16
-
American Nations
- A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture, but rather into one of the 11 distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory. In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent....
-
-
One of a Kind Masterpiece
- By Theo Horesh on 02-28-13
By: Colin Woodard
-
If I Live Until Morning
- A True Story of Adventure, Tragedy and Transformation
- By: Jean Muenchrath
- Narrated by: Sarah Brands
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An inspiring memoir about a courageous woman's survival and recovery from an adventure-induced trauma - and the power of her dreams to overcome tragedy and live life to the fullest. Her wilderness adventure turned into a nightmare. After skiing more than 200 miles along California's John Muir Trail, Jean faces death from a mountaineering accident on Mount Whitney. Broken and bleeding on the highest peak in the continental United States, she vows to realize her greatest dreams if she lives until morning.
-
-
Definite listen for those looking for “more” (than the obvious/given)
- By Melissa Cribb on 04-03-21
By: Jean Muenchrath
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
Black Flags, Blue Waters
- The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's "Golden Age" when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of these seafaring outlaws.
-
-
Solid read, BUT...
- By K ODell on 07-17-19
By: Eric Jay Dolin
-
Shantaram
- A Novel
- By: Gregory David Roberts
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 42 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
-
-
Probably the best performance I've listened to.
- By Mickey on 04-15-14
-
The Nine
- The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany
- By: Gwen Strauss
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nine follows the true story of the author’s great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a 10-day journey across the front lines of World War II from Germany back to Paris. Drawing on incredible research, this powerful, heart-stopping narrative is a moving tribute to the power of humanity and friendship in the darkest of times.
-
-
Soooo good!
- By anne simpson on 09-28-21
By: Gwen Strauss
-
The Happiest Man on Earth
- The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor
- By: Eddie Jaku
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Leipzig, Germany, into a Jewish family, Eddie Jaku was a teenager when his world was turned upside-down. On November 9, 1938, during the terrifying violence of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Eddie was beaten by SS thugs, arrested, and sent to a concentration camp with thousands of other Jews across Germany. Every day of the next seven years of his life, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and finally on a forced death march during the Third Reich’s final days.
-
-
Everyone needs to listen to this amazing man
- By Christan Derryberry on 05-12-21
By: Eddie Jaku
-
Hell's Angels
- A Strange and Terrible Saga
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson rocked the literary world with his mind-bending style of Gonzo journalism. First published in 1966, Hell’s Angels is Thompson’s up-close and personal look at the infamous motorcycle gang during the time when its moniker was most feared.
-
-
Visions of the Future of Motorcycle Gangs
- By Joe Bloggs on 07-13-13
Critic reviews
'Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.' RICHARD FLANAGAN
'The most important Australian book published in 2018.' ROBERT MANNE
'A powerful account ... made me feel ashamed and outraged. Behrouz's writing is lyrical and poetic, though the horrors he describes are unspeakable' SOFIE LAGUNA
'A poetic, yet harrowing read, and every Australian household should have a copy.' MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE
'Bears lucid, poetic and devastating witness to the insane barbarity enacted in our name.' MICHELLE DE KRETSER
What listeners say about No Friend but the Mountains
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- claire tully
- 08-23-20
Narrators
I think this is an amazing book. sad but incredibly eloquent. unfortunately the narrator's killed it for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!