Alive

The Story of the Andes Survivors

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.

Courage and determination

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

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.

Superb

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

Overall Great Read

Overall, I highly recommend this book! The only criticism I have is that they should’ve chosen a Spanish-speaking narrator. The narrator is a British man with a nice voice, but it’s just a little strange to hear him mispronounce Spanish words. Since the story is about Spanish-speaking people, it would’ve been nice to have a narrator that could comfortable say the names of the people and places in the book.

a true Miracles in the Andes,

a true story of human survival in the harshest of conditions . loved it

Incredible

Incredible story with an amazing amount of detail.

The narration is excellent. I think the pronunciation of some of the names was a bit off, but that didn't detract from the story.

Amazing story! I was caught up the entire time!

I absolutely loved this book. The narrator was phenomenal, and the story was extremely well-written. I never got distracted and wanted to keep listening. It's wild that this is a true story, it sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster! I'm anxious to watch the film. Please read!

An Incredible, Incredible Story

Have you ever cried listening to an audiobook? This one did it. Truly an unmatched account of human survival in the worst odds imaginable. You'll come to this story intrigued by the mention of survival cannibalism but this story is SO much more. Recommend following this up with the episode of "I Am Alive" to put faces to the names in the story & of course the film adaption.

Falls Apart

It was a fascinating story overall with lots of research done to collect numerous perspectives, but it falls apart at the end. The last hour or so focuses entirely on their binge eating and the world's reaction to them resorting to cannibalism. Still a unique story and makes you question what you'd be willing to do to survive.

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

Incredible story

This is a great book! I found myself listening to it at 2am in the morning, unable to switch off. I was born way after the event so I only knew snippets of what had happened, so it was a shame that the preface gives the ending away. Other than that, a really enjoyable read. Well worth the credit.

Enjoyed the story but...

I've already read the book and was interested to listen to the audio version.

Unfortunately I felt the choice of reader was poor - although clear, the reading was far too lighthearted and jovial sounding

Why tell us how it ends at the beginning?

Very interesting story and clear narration however, it was a shame they told you how it ended at the start of the book. I’m not sure why they did that as you already knew how many survived and how they were rescued which did ruin the anticipation aspect of the story a bit.

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?

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.

Mental story..

The story here is absolutely crazy.. would recommend for that alone.
A tragic accident in the first place but then pile on top of that everything else they had to endure.

A great read or rather a listen

I'd already read Miracle in the Andes and this book was a great compliment to that. It sort of fills in the missing data and provides a deeper summery of events to what is really an amazing tale. While Miracle in the Andes is a more personal account of the events that transpired in 1972, this book is more a detailed account, a day to day of what happened. It really goes into some detail to help flesh out the former. Highly recommended to listen to both. A truly amazing tale of human endurance in one of the worlds most inhospitable environments. Great!

What a phenomenal story of endurance and survival

Amazing survival story and interesting perspective of the survivors and the families. A must read for anyone who enjoys human triumph over the elements or disaster.

gruesome but inspiring

the resolve the boys had to live was really something I really enjoyed this book and finished it quickly