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Young Men and Fire

By: Norman Maclean
Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
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Publisher's summary

On August 5, 1949, a crew of 15 of the United States Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of these men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for 40 years, Norman Maclean puts back together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy.

©1972 The University of Chicago (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

What listeners say about Young Men and Fire

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A masterpiece by Maclean

This is a book I will forever keep on my audible shelf! The prose and narrative was amazing! A great performance! It should be a mandatory read/listen for any student of natural resources and American Western history.

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The best book I've experienced in years

If you like the outdoors and understanding man's place in it, you will love this book. it's a story, meticulously researched and reconstructed by Norman Maclean. Thirteen young men, "smokejumpers," parachuted to the edge of what became a massive fire that devoured almost all of them. Maclean writes with controlled passion about this catastrophe, how it happened and lessons it offered future wildfire fighters. Maclean's humanity, his literary mastery and his ease with science and humanity in equal measure all make for a compelling story.

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Stories we need to hear

I am at a loss of words for how the author achieved both an epic story-telling and a research of a neglected historical event.

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The Men Who Knew HELL!

This book has a way of grabbing you pulling you in and makes you dive deeper into wanting to understand forest fires.
Could not really understand what these men went tbro especially ones of such young age

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    5 out of 5 stars

SAMS required read. Doctrine Man reccommended.

i thought the audio version was well done. the story is a great study in team composition and communication.

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Wonderful!

How Maclean is able to address scientific information, human emotion, and historical events all at the same time AND make it fascinating and inspiring is beyond my understanding! I loved how we are taught about these young smoke jumpers and an old man running out of time all at the same time. I highly recommend this book!

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Moving and technically fascinating story.

Going to listen to the rest of Mclean's writing now. Superb writing and magnificent narration.

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Great story. Narrator could have been better.

If you are going to narrate a book you need to find out how to pronounce the local names and sights. I know that in the south they pronounce Missouri the way it was in this book. However those of us that live in Montana and the northwest pronounce Missouri with an “ee” sound at the end. It was incredibly distracting to listen to the mispronunciation of my beloved river. Also Hilger landing is pronounced with a “J” sound. Well done on not botching Helena. Did appreciate that! It’s the little things that bring excellence .

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Former Hotshot Approved

As a former hotshot wildland firefighter I highly recommend this book to understand the history of what has created our wildland firefighting impacts to this day.

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great story terrible narration

narrator sounds like a computer generated voice, almost devoid of emotion. ruins a great story

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