• 81 Days Below Zero

  • The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness
  • By: Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou
  • Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
  • Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (638 ratings)

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81 Days Below Zero  By  cover art

81 Days Below Zero

By: Brian Murphy,Toula Vlahou
Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
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Publisher's summary

The untold story of Leon Crane, the only surviving crew member of a World War II B-24 crash on a remote mountain near the Arctic Circle, who managed to stay alive 81 days in sub-zero temperature by making peace with nature, and end his ordeal by walking along a river to safety. Part World War II story, part Alaskan adventure story, part survival story, and even part inspirational story, this is what we call "a good listen".

This is the first full-length retelling of Crane's incredible survivalist story. It has been noted in magazines and in story collections over the years. Most notably, just after the war ended, Crane's story was included in the aptly titled book, The 100 Best True Stories of World War II. Additionally, in the 1970s the story was a part of John McPhee's hot-selling collection of Alaskan survival tales, Coming into the Country.

©2015 Brian Murphy (P)2015 Recorded Books

What listeners say about 81 Days Below Zero

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Diluted and Distracted

A fantastic story so wandering and diluted that you will often forget what the book is about. It is however a fantastic tale but it reminds me of a story written by a student stretching a one page paper into five.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Did not enjoy

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Talk more about his experience in the wild and less about the history of everything else.

Has 81 Days Below Zero turned you off from other books in this genre?

I am 5 hours into book and it has only talked about Leon Crain for about 10% of the time, I thought it was going to be about how he survived 81 days in the Alaskan Bush but so far I have learned about the history of everything else.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • JH
  • 08-16-16

Tangent City

Great story but so many tangents into areas i just didn't care about. Needs an abridged version of just the main story with a few supporting facts. Audible voice over artist was OK, not great. Made everyone sounds elderly, even the young people.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very long and drawn out

Awful. When the author was focused on the main story of Lt Cranes struggle it was excellent, but the author spent waaaay too much time droning on and on about unrelated or slightly related tangents that it was a chore to finish but I was very interested in Lt Crane's fight to survive.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

way more back story than real story.

OK I get it. It's obvious that the author didn't have many of the details about the actual survival story. But a shorter book would have been better than burying the real story within the mostly useless back, side,and front stories.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Its more about ww2 than the actual story of survival

I got this book to hear about an against all odds survival story not a bunch of random ww2 accounts. Very disappointed more than half the book is about random people during various parts of ww2. It should be called something different very miss leading. It doesn’t do this man’s story any justice it’s muddled with everything but the actual accounts of surviving the Arctic.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Get to the story

If this book was about the 81 days of survival it would be 1/4 of the pages. The book rambles on and on about things not involving survival or about this particular situation. If I would have known I would have passed on this one

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The best military book I’ve ever listened to

This book has a little bit for everyone. Military references, history, era references to the 1940’s, wilderness and of course, survival and life in Alaska. The author did a fantastic job of painting the entire picture of time and place and the events leading up, during and after Leon Crane’s amazing trek. I feel as if I watched a movie after listening to it beginning to end. I typically don’t listen/read books more than once but this one I absolutely will!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Medium

VERY, interesting story. Too much filler material with other seemingly unnecessary stories that make the book drag on at times.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected.

Less than half of the book was even about how he survived; which is what I thought the focus of the book would be about. It's more of a compilation of a bunch of different short stories around that time period and 40+ years earlier. The stories were fine but the full book is just not what I was expecting. You'd think the story of someone trying to survive for three months on -20 degree temperatures could provide more insight and stories.

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2 people found this helpful