Alive

By: Piers Paul Read

Narrated by: Paul Ansdell

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the 45 original passengers and crew, only 16 made it off the mountain alive. For 10 excruciating weeks, they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, these men and women not only had to keep their faith; they had to make an impossible decision: Should they eat the flesh of their dead friends?

A remarkable story of endurance and determination, Alive is the dramatic best-selling account of one of the most harrowing quests for survival in modern times.

©2002 Piers Paul Read (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Amazing!!!

I could not stop listening. It was so interesting! The author made a great job of describing clearly all the incidents. The narrator was also great.

2 people found this helpful

Long Drives Made Better

It is a beautifully written tale of a miraculous feat!
This book was recommended to me by someone when I was talking about true crime and the deaths on Mount Everest. I started listening the next day during my commute and I suddenly started looking forward to car rides.

There is great detail on what happened, the men's experiences and struggles both mentally and physically, and they went about surviving.

I would not recommend to those who can't handle slightly morbid topics involving death, wounds, etc.

1 person found this helpful

Superb

I very much enjoy this book and Read was an excellent reader. Would recommend to friends, just not when flying.

2 people found this helpful

Courage and determination

Loved this story, so tragic but so beautiful in its courage, determination and truth. Could I have so brave?

2 people found this helpful

great story

An amazing story. Note that the narrator has an English accent. I didn't expect that, and would have preferred an American one, especially since Spanish words were often mispronounced.

Obra imprescindible.

Emocionante relato. Historia completa sin tapujos, imprescindible para entender la naturaleza humana in-extremis.
Imperdible.
Épica.

Touching

Heroic, touching, survival at its best, emotional, spiritual & love.
A wonderful story to remind those that forget, our lives are important & should never be taken for granted. Friends are important in so many ways & to help one another to keep gping, try & never give up. Hope, prayer, strength, courage and forgiveness can do so much for our souls.

good

i listen to it it good ppp p p pp p p pp p p p pp p p p pp🦍🦍➡️↗️🅱️😔😔😔🥶😊🏀⚪

my 3rd time reading this book.

Quite possibly the deepest and most human story I ever read. I could only imagine what these guys went through. Heartwrenching from start to finish with a message of Hope.

Wow

I read this book when I was a teenager and I’m still inspired by it as an adult. I do wish the narrator had learned the correct way to pronounce names and places but overall I appreciated his performance.

One of the best books I've ever read

Incredible story, I couldn't stop listening. The narrator was actually very good on the whole, but, as others have pointed out, his pronunciation of Spanish names and places was awful. Still, it doesn't really detract from the experience and he makes up for it with otherwise good narration.

1 person found this helpful

Fascinating and thought provoking.

I liked the delivery of the book. I definitely do recommend, it's a good read.

couldn’t finish listening to, returned title...

an utterly unfortunate choice of reader for a book describing a catastrophic event as profound as those events described i find it utterly incomprehensible as to why the producers of this book chose a plummy london geezer (think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [a celebrity chef {who i LOVE by the way} talking about food etc but wouldn’t be my first choice for a book of this kind]) to narrate this title

giving an completely incongruous ‘children’s storybook’ reading of a subject that is anything but

a book with Spanish and Latin American peoples and place names read by someone who so obviously and painfully struggles with both

tone and intonation of voice being critically important and highlighting the the importance of casting for book readings conveying profound and difficult

the message of the book with empathy, understanding and deep (any) insight as to the pain and struggle of those being described

i have no doubt that this title is an important one, so much so that i cannot do it the disservice of listening to this version

i will simply have to look and wait for and until another more sensitively approached version is released.

i can’t read this book so i am grateful to all involved in its making

and i have never stopped listening to a book before, however much i didn’t enjoy the narration, this is an unhappy first and i do so out of respect for the subject and the pain and struggle of those being described.

please ignore the star ratings, they are meaningless for this review

i simply don’t feel able to give any

this review is 100% regarding performance, at this point, i am saying nothing about any other aspect, how can i I wasn’t able to finish

An in-depth story about the struggle for survival

I enjoyed this story, it was graphic, informative and chilling. It guides you through the horrific choices that have to be made to survive.

The narration though made this story very hard to listen to, Paul Ansdell, unfortunately reads this book in a way that reminds me of being read a children’s bed time story. If you can get past this, then the story is a real treat and amazing to learn.

Great story!

i have always found this story story fascinating. This survival story gives a good account of what happened to those survivors of the Andes plane crash and i found the narrators voice very easy to listen to. Well worth the money and time in my opinion.

Astonishing story

Grim retelling of the Adean air crash in the '70s. Interesting to hear the actions of the parents and the useless military.
The question is... Would you?