The Drowned Places
- Author Damian Le Bas
- Narrator Damian Le Bas
- Publisher Random House
- Publish Date 17 April 2025
- Run Time 9 hours and 53 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Autobiography: adventurers and explorers, Memoirs, Swimming and diving, The Earth: natural history: general interest, The environment, Travel writing.
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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
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