Peter Nichols has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 9 ratings. The most-rated is A Voyage for Madmen.
A Voyage for Madmen
Summary
In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.
©2001 Peter Nichols (P)2017 Tantor
Final Voyage
Summary
In 1871, an entire fleet of whaling ships was caught in an arctic ice storm and destroyed. Though few lives were lost, the damage would forever shape one of America's most distinctive commodities: oil. New Bedford, Massachusetts, was fertile ground for this country's first multimillion-dollar industry. Founded by assiduous Quaker merchants seeking refuge for their austere religion, the town also lent unparalleled access to the high seas. The combination would lead to what would become the most successful whaling industry in America, and with it, the world's first oil hegemony. Oyl, or oil derived from whale blubber, revolutionized New England commerce. And as intrepid New Bedford whalers ventured farther into uncharted waters in search of untapped resources, the town saw incomparable wealth. But with all of the town's resources tethered to this dangerous industry and the fickle sea, success was fragile. Final Voyage is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America's first oil industry. Peter Nichols deftly captures what New Bedford life was like for its Quaker inhabitants and, using a wealth of primary resources, has created a vivid picture of the evolution of whaling and how its demise was destined even before that devastating voyage.
©2009 Peter Nichols (P)2009 Tantor
Voyage to the North Star
Summary
Peter Nichols’ novel, which has been likened to the works of Jack London and Joseph Conrad, immediately rose to top places on best-seller lists across the country. Voyage to the North Star offers an amazing combination of high-seas adventure and human folly. It is also filled with authentic detail, since Nichols is an experienced sailor who has made a solo journey across the Atlantic. Carl Schenck is fabulously wealthy, but he aspires to be a great hunter. Africa is too tame, so in 1932 he buys the Lodestar and equips the yacht in luxury. Outfitted with rubberized boots and an arsenal of guns, Schenck sets out for Arctic waters to shoot bears, seals, and “every animal in sight.” As days unfold on the frozen horizon, peril after peril confronts the boat and its crew. Although Schenck is unstoppable, others on the Lodestar are forever changed by this ill-fated voyage. Narrator George Guidall’s performance conveys all the dangerous magic of the icy seas and captures the increasing madness of Schenck’s expedition.
©1999 Peter Nichols (P)2000 Recorded Books, LLC
The Rocks
Summary
A romantic pause resister propelled by the 60-year secret that has shaped two families, four lovers, and one seaside resort community.
Set against dramatic Mediterranean Sea views and lush olive groves, The Rocks opens with a confrontation and a secret: What was the mysterious, catastrophic event that drove two honeymooners apart so suddenly and absolutely in 1948 that they never spoke again despite living on the same island for 60 more years? And how did their history shape the Romeo and Juliet-like romance of their (unrelated) children decades later? Centered around a popular seaside resort club and its community, The Rocks is a double love story that begins with a mystery, then moves backward in time, era by era, to unravel what really happened decades earlier.
Peter Nichols writes with a pervading, soulful wisdom and self-knowing humor and captures perfectly this world of glamorous, complicated, misbehaving types with all their sophisticated flaws and genuine longing. The result is a bittersweet, intelligent, and romantic novel about how powerful the perceived truth can be - as a bond and as a barrier - even if it's not really the whole story and how one misunderstanding can echo irreparably through decades.
©2015 Peter Nichols (P)2015 Penguin Audio