
The Art of Patience
Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet
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 $13.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Pittu
About this listen
A journey in search of one of the most elusive creatures on the planet.
Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.
For the chance to glimpse this near-mythical beast, Tesson and his companions must wait for hours without making a sound or a movement, enduring the thin air and brutal cold. Their vigil becomes an act of faith - many have pursued the snow leopard for years without seeing it - and as they keep their watch, Tesson comes to embrace the virtues of patience and silence. His faith is rewarded when the snow leopard, the spirit of the mountain, reveals itself: an embodiment of what we have surrendered in our contemporary lives. And the simple act of waiting proves to be an antidote to the frenzy of our times.
A celebration of the power and grace of the wild, and a requiem for the world's vanishing places, The Art of Patience is a revelatory account of the communion between nature and the human heart. Sylvain Tesson has written a new masterpiece on the relationship between man and beast in prose as sublime as the wilderness that inspired it.
©2021 Sylvain Tesson (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Trail to Kanjiroba
- Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss
- By: William deBuys
- Narrated by: William deBuys
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A revitalizing new perspective on Earthcare from Pulitzer Prize finalist William deBuys.
-
-
Wonderful book!
- By Margo Cutler on 05-22-24
By: William deBuys
-
The Wild Places
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.
-
-
Magical
- By Jennifer on 01-27-22
-
Around the World in 80 Books
- By: David Damrosch
- Narrated by: David Damrosch
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring 80 exceptional books from around the globe.
-
-
Ruined by writer narrating
- By Zander Holden on 01-21-24
By: David Damrosch
-
Wild
- By: Graham Boynton
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla, Graham Boynton
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was the original 20th-century enfant terrible with the looks of a Greek god who blazed like a comet across the worlds of art, photography, and fame. The scion of several old WASP fortunes, he was by instinct an adventurer, and the more dangerous the escapade, the better. Journalist and author Graham Boynton was a friend for more than 30 years, spending time with Beard at his bush camp in Africa, in London, and at his Long Island home. From hundreds of Boynton’s interviews with Beard’s closest friends, former lovers, and fellow artists comes this intimate portrait.
By: Graham Boynton
-
Nomads
- The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World
- By: Anthony Sattin
- Narrated by: Anthony Sattin
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving across millennia, Nomads explores the transformative and often bloody relationship between settled and mobile societies. The story of the shifting, umbilical connections between these two very different ways of living presents a radical new view of human civilization. From the Neolithic revolution to the twenty-first century via some of the lesser-known Eurasian steppe cultures, the great nomad empires of the Persians, Arabs, Mongols, and Mughals, as well as the mobile native North American peoples, nomads have been a perpetual counterbalance to the power of the settled.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Nancy F. Heller on 11-30-22
By: Anthony Sattin
-
How Not to Be a Politician
- A Memoir
- By: Rory Stewart
- Narrated by: Rory Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rory Stewart was an unlikely politician. He was best known for his two-year walk across Asia—in which he crossed Afghanistan, essentially solo, in the months after 9/11—and for his service, as a diplomat in Iraq, and Afghanistan. But in 2009, he abandoned his chair at Harvard University to stand for a seat in Parliament, representing the communities and farms of the Lake District and the Scottish border—one of the most isolated and beautiful districts in England.
-
-
An inside look
- By William Davidson on 12-29-24
By: Rory Stewart
-
The Trail to Kanjiroba
- Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss
- By: William deBuys
- Narrated by: William deBuys
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A revitalizing new perspective on Earthcare from Pulitzer Prize finalist William deBuys.
-
-
Wonderful book!
- By Margo Cutler on 05-22-24
By: William deBuys
-
The Wild Places
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.
-
-
Magical
- By Jennifer on 01-27-22
-
Around the World in 80 Books
- By: David Damrosch
- Narrated by: David Damrosch
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring 80 exceptional books from around the globe.
-
-
Ruined by writer narrating
- By Zander Holden on 01-21-24
By: David Damrosch
-
Wild
- By: Graham Boynton
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla, Graham Boynton
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was the original 20th-century enfant terrible with the looks of a Greek god who blazed like a comet across the worlds of art, photography, and fame. The scion of several old WASP fortunes, he was by instinct an adventurer, and the more dangerous the escapade, the better. Journalist and author Graham Boynton was a friend for more than 30 years, spending time with Beard at his bush camp in Africa, in London, and at his Long Island home. From hundreds of Boynton’s interviews with Beard’s closest friends, former lovers, and fellow artists comes this intimate portrait.
By: Graham Boynton
-
Nomads
- The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World
- By: Anthony Sattin
- Narrated by: Anthony Sattin
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving across millennia, Nomads explores the transformative and often bloody relationship between settled and mobile societies. The story of the shifting, umbilical connections between these two very different ways of living presents a radical new view of human civilization. From the Neolithic revolution to the twenty-first century via some of the lesser-known Eurasian steppe cultures, the great nomad empires of the Persians, Arabs, Mongols, and Mughals, as well as the mobile native North American peoples, nomads have been a perpetual counterbalance to the power of the settled.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Nancy F. Heller on 11-30-22
By: Anthony Sattin
-
How Not to Be a Politician
- A Memoir
- By: Rory Stewart
- Narrated by: Rory Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rory Stewart was an unlikely politician. He was best known for his two-year walk across Asia—in which he crossed Afghanistan, essentially solo, in the months after 9/11—and for his service, as a diplomat in Iraq, and Afghanistan. But in 2009, he abandoned his chair at Harvard University to stand for a seat in Parliament, representing the communities and farms of the Lake District and the Scottish border—one of the most isolated and beautiful districts in England.
-
-
An inside look
- By William Davidson on 12-29-24
By: Rory Stewart
-
Lost in the Valley of Death
- A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas
- By: Harley Rustad
- Narrated by: Harley Rustad
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures.
-
-
False Inspiration
- By appreciative reader on 02-02-22
By: Harley Rustad
-
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over seven decades, John McPhee has set a standard for literary nonfiction. Assaying mountain ranges, bark canoes, experimental aircraft, the Swiss Army, geophysical hot spots, ocean shipping, shad fishing, dissident art in the Soviet Union, and an even wider variety of other subjects, he has consistently written narrative pieces of immaculate design. In Tabula Rasa, Volume 1, McPhee looks back at his career from the vantage point of his desk drawer, reflecting wryly upon projects he once planned to do but never got around to—people to profile, regions he meant to portray.
-
-
A New Yorker writer surveys his office boxes...
- By Darwin8u on 09-04-23
By: John McPhee
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
Mountains of the Mind
- Adventures in Reaching the Summit
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: James A. Gillies
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining accounts of legendary mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays into wild, high landscapes, Robert Macfarlane reveals how the mystery of the world's highest places has come to grip the Western imagination - and perennially draws legions of adventurers up the most perilous slopes. His story begins three centuries ago, when mountains were feared as the forbidding abodes of dragons and other mysterious beasts.
-
-
Pretentious Narrator
- By karla arens on 09-07-20
-
Underland
- A Deep Time Journey
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.
-
-
Wonderful book, disappointing narrator
- By Clare Woods on 07-05-19
-
Desert Solitaire
- A Season in the Wilderness
- By: Edward Abbey
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah.
-
-
Wrong narrator for Abbey
- By Todd Steele on 02-06-12
By: Edward Abbey
-
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World
- Essays
- By: Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit - introduction
- Narrated by: James Naughton, Rebecca Solnit
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An ardent steward of the land, fearless traveler, and unrivaled observer of nature and culture, Barry Lopez died after a long illness on Christmas Day 2020. The previous summer, a wildfire had consumed much of what was dear to him in his home place and the community around it—a tragic reminder of the climate change of which he’d long warned.
-
-
Intense and beautifully personal
- By Karen West on 06-28-23
By: Barry Lopez, and others
-
The Hero's Way
- Walking with Garibaldi from Rome to Ravenna
- By: Tim Parks
- Narrated by: Roger May
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1849, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy's legendary revolutionary, was finally forced to abandon his defense of Rome. He and his men had held the besieged city for four long months, but now it was clear that only surrender would prevent slaughter and destruction at the hands of a huge French army. Against all odds, Garibaldi was determined to turn defeat into moral victory.
-
-
Interactive book
- By Chief44 on 08-02-24
By: Tim Parks
-
Sand Talk
- How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
- By: Tyson Yunkaporta
- Narrated by: Tyson Yunkaporta
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability - and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently?
-
-
um...
- By Michael D. Phillips on 01-12-21
By: Tyson Yunkaporta
-
Wild Mind, Wild Earth
- Our Place in the Sixth Extinction
- By: David Hinton
- Narrated by: David Hinton
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth is embroiled in its sixth major extinction event—this time caused not by asteroids or volcanos, but by us. At bottom, preventing this sixth extinction is a spiritual and philosophical problem, for it is the assumptions defining us and our relation to earth that are driving the devastation. Those assumptions insist on a fundamental separation of human and earth that devalues earth and enables our exploitative relation to it.
-
-
insight into reality
- By Amazon Customer on 01-06-25
By: David Hinton
-
The Songlines
- By: Bruce Chatwin
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part travelogue, part memoir, part novel, The Songlines is one of Bruce Chatwin's final - and most ambitious - works. From the author of the bestselling In Patagonia and On the Black Hill, a sweeping exploration of a landscape, a people, and one man's history, it is the sort of book that changes the listener forever.
-
-
Travel with Bruce
- By Peter Ryers on 10-07-21
By: Bruce Chatwin
-
Wanderlust
- A History of Walking
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Liisa Ivary
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing together many histories - of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores - Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers.
-
-
Walking as politics
- By Jason V on 06-04-18
By: Rebecca Solnit
Critic reviews
“In The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet, the French writer Sylvain Tesson chronicles his rapturous journey through Tibet’s Chantang plateau with the wildlife photographer Vincent Munier. Tesson’s words, in a ravishing translation by Frank Wynne, paint pictures as vivid as any photograph.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“The Art of Patience is extraordinarily beautiful, a narrative of prose that flows with poetry, a long, last loving glance at the planet, a visit to the vital bedside of a living world determined to stay alive.” (Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild: How Animals Learn to be Animals)
“Beautifully written, beautifully translated, intensely moving and totally absorbing.” (Stanley Johnson, author of Where the Wild Things Were)