Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Mar 05, 2011

Hannah rated it:

In October of 1972, a chartered plane carrying 45 passengers and crew left Uruguay to travel to Chile. A majority of the passengers were made up of young men who were part of an amateur rugby team going to Chile for a game. Others included family and friends. Over the rugged Andes, the pilot made a fatal error, and the plane crashed into the side of a mountain, flinging parts of the tail section, fuselage, wing, rudder and even some passengers out over the desolate landscape. The survivors w More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Brenda rated it:

On Friday, Oct. 13, 1972 a Fairchild F-227 chartered from the Uruguayan Air Force, carrying a young amateur rugby team and their families and friends from Uruguay slammed into the middle of the Andes Mountains east of Chile.

They had left home with much excitement on Oct 12th, but reports of bad weather in the Andes had put them down for an overnight stay in Mendoza. Most of the young men, with an average age of just 19, had never flown before, never been away from home, so they were More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Linds rated it:

This is one the most intense survival story I've ever read. It takes turns being horrific and inspirational. I have seen the 1993 Ethan Hawke movie 'Alive' and while it captured a lot of details, the book is so good. It was written directly after the incident so all the memories were fresh and the detailed conversations were remembered.

In 1972 a private Catholic college rugby team from Uruguay went on a trip to play a match in Chile and enjoy a mini vacation. Their plane crashed in t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Mark R. rated it:

"Alive" provides a detailed account of the trials a group of rugby players and their flight companions underwent after their plane crashed in the Andes in 1972.

The book isn't written as a "nonfiction novel", and has a tone halfway between fictional prose and an in-depth magazine article. I believe the author's intent was to describe the situation as accurately as possible without fabricating anything, aside from small pieces of dialogue present here and there thr More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Missy rated it:

Wow, what an incredible story. I had seen the movie a while back and thought I knew what happened, but the movie doesn't depict half of what went on up there in the Andes. And the characters and their thoughts and struggles during their 70+ days out there is very intense. Along with what really happened from the parent's point of view with trying to get the gov't to send search and rescue people out, because nobody believed there could be anyone still alive, much less 16 of them. And what th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2007

Catharine rated it:

One of the survivors in this book is quoted as saying that his experience of surviving following a plane crash in the Andes Mountains was the greatest experience of his life. All of the survivors suffered from severe cold, lack of food, and some had injuries,or infections, The test was severe, and yet, this young man could say that it was his greatest exprience. I think whenever we prove to ourselves how much we can handle, we grow and we can look back and say that the hardship, whatever it wa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2007

Katie rated it:

Most know the story of "Alive," a true account of astonishing survival. In 1972, a plane carrying a rugby team from Uruguay crashed in the Andes mountains. Of 45 passengers, only 16 survived the 70 days on the mountain. Their food supply quickly depleted, and rather than starve to death, they made the grisly decision to eat the bodies of their dead companions. This cannibalism has been hyped extensively as an act of bravery, but the enormous faith that they placed in God and man, enabl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 14, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

I read this back when it was fairly new... I would have thought that I'd retain more of the feeling I had at the time.

What will anyone do when faced with death? How will humanity in general deal with starvation? I'd say "it remains to be seen" might be the lesson to be learned here.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2008

Andrea rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 01, 2011

Patti rated it:

Not gonna lie--I read this book because I wanted to read about how they ate the people. That is what hooked everyone to this story, isn't it? I saw the movie to see how they ate the people. It's what everyone remembers and why we remember the Donner party all these years later. Dude, they ATE THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!

In the book, they had already eaten the first people by about page 70; the book is hundreds of pages longer. Huh, I thought. What are they going to talk about for the rest of More...

0 comments like

Apr 19, 2011

Yune rated it:

The tale of the survivors of an Uruguayan plane after it crashed in the Andes mountains. It's difficult to make this story uninteresting, but most of the appeal does end up coming from amazement rather than compelling writing.

As always, extreme situations will bring out better things in some people than others, and Read delicately walked the line between describing some people's failings without being harshly condemning (since, y'know, many of us would not be paragons in a similar situ More...

0 comments like

Mar 10, 2011

Kater rated it:

The success of this book relates mostly to the compelling nature of the tragedy that spawned it. Even before reading this book, I'd heard the story of these Urugayans who crashed into the Andes back in 1972. It seemed like the perfect book to read on a long flight home.

I've read a lot of books about disasters, so I came to this with a more critical eye than the average reader. Read focuses almost entirely upon the actions taken by the survivors after they landed. He leaves the ca More...

0 comments like

Mar 05, 2011

Athira rated it:

Suspense, emotions, and cannibalism. In the book, ALIVE: The Story of the Andes Survivors, author Piers Paul Read showcases his ability to hypnotize the reader. Seriously, it's as if he works in jedi mind tricks into his writing. Throughout, he keeps the reader interested by teasing him or her with the constant use of internal cliffhangers and mental shifts.

The book begins focused on a group of Uruguayan rugby players accompanied by some of their friends and family members on their a More...

0 comments like

Dec 23, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

Triumphant story. Through disaster and suffering, the human spirit and faith prevail. Every human being in the world should read this book. This story has burned itself into my soul; it has shaken my mind and moved my heart in every way possible. This tragedy goes far beyond the inhuman conditions of living (and dying), the intolerable suffering and inescapable pressure of despair. From these depths arise ordinary heroes; these are real men and women whose love and will to live for others w More...

0 comments like

Nov 08, 2010

Austin rated it:

This book is one of those novels that you will never forget. It is a phenomenal writing piece based on a rugby team whose plane crashed when flying over the Andes Mountains. They were stuck in these mountains for over ten weeks. Forty five passengers and the crew were on the plane before it crashed, and only sixteen of the passengers left the mountain alive. This book will go down as one of my all-time favorite novels in the entire world. Since it is a survival story, at any point in time someth More...

0 comments like

Sep 28, 2010

Zach rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Sep 02, 2010

Corinne rated it:

When you know from the beginning of a book that a plane full of young Rugby players crash lands in the snowy Andes mountains, and yet somehow some of those boys survive for weeks and weeks - you know it's not going to be a pretty story. And it's not. It's survival at its grittiest core, what do we humans really need to stay alive? Their story is told in an incredibly straightforward, almost newspaper-story type narrative. There's no real emotion. There's no flowery speech. It's just as true of a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2010

Becca rated it:

This tells the story of how some people survived a plane crash in the Andes, with little to no food, shelter, or means of knowing where they were and how to get out. I always find these tales of survival, and of people being pushed to the limit, interesting.

The story is well told, comprehensive, sensitive to most issues, and searching as far as the motivations and suffering of the survivors. I particularly liked the heroism of the few who managed to hike out to contact civilization. More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2009

Steve rated it:

I remember well the news reports when the survivors were found. Of course, the way they survived was emphasized in the news, but the day to day story of survival is much more than that. This book was written shortly after the events occurred, and filled with details. It's written well, and is hard to put down. One of the survivors, Nando Parrado, wrote his own story a few years ago called "Miracle in the Andes". His story matches the story here well, and is a good companion book.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 20, 2009

Amy rated it:

This is a book I return to again and again for the incredible inspiration it gives me during times of fear or stress. Truly what could be more terrifying than being stranded, after a horrifying plane wreck in the middle of the Andes Mountains in the dead of winter. Not only must they remove their dead friends from the wreck, but they must watch many others die slowly due to various reasons.

The survivors, with the help of those that did not make it, managed to work and pray togethe More...

0 comments like

Jan 31, 2008

Carlie rated it:

I was given a first edition copy of this book for Christmas one year with original newspaper articles of the event hidden inside. The only thing I knew about this story prior to reading it was what most know; the cannibalism. This was not the the focus of the book and was dealt with as a matter of last resort, survival. These young rugby players were inspiring and handled their situation truly as a team when faced with the universal, absoluteness of death.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Lushbug rated it:

This is the official account of the survivors of the Andes plane crash in 1972 who survived for over 70 days in the bleakest conditions you can imagine. Of the 45 people on the flight, only 16 survived, resorting to cannibalism to live. They coped with freezing cold, no food, avalanches, being surrounded by dead and dying friends who would scream and moan in agony, knowing there was nothing they could do for them.
Everyone knows this story as they became famous not just for surviving but More...

0 comments like

Mar 15, 2011

Esme rated it:

Das Wunder der Anden

Am 13. Oktober 1972 stürzt ein Passagierflugzeug aus Uruguay mit 45 Menschen an Bord in den Anden ab. 70 Tage in einer ausweglosen und gefährlichen Grenzsituation. 16 überleben, weil sie ein gesellschaftliches Tabu brachen: Anthropophagie. Eine authentische Geschichte, die jede Vorstellungskraft übersteigt.

Piers Paul Read verbrachte mit den Überlebenden mehrere Monate und durchlebte mit ihnen jede Minute dieser Zeit nach. Es entstand dieses Buch, das über More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2012

Emily rated it:

This book was horrible. It's impossible to get into after the first 2 chapters. Never read this book unless you want to read about people crash landing in the andes and eating the dead people's butts. I had to read this for a school project and I stopped when I had read enough to do the work on it. Then I read the last page just to see if the people were rescued. They were just to let you know so you don't waist you time with this horrible book.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 25, 2009

Naomi rated it:

What an incredible story of survival and love!!! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, being a little leery of the cannibalism in it and how it may have been presented. What the survivors had to eat to live was a small part of the the story, a couple times going into a little too much detail. For me though, book was about courageous young men that chose to rise to the occasion and live through the most horrific physical and mental situation.

The underlying love story caught More...

0 comments like

Apr 21, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Wow, just spent an emotional afternoon reading the second half of this book! There's a lot to talk about - the moral dilemma of eating human flesh to survive, the team work (including exposing the shirkers and the workers), the resourcefulness, the waxing and waning of motivation, the 'expeditionists', the importance of their faith/ God to the group, the desperate circumstances etc etc.

The book was a bit hard going to start with, partly due to the many names the author throws at us but More...

0 comments like

Feb 24, 2011

Tricia rated it:

I am haunted by this book! I can't stop thinking about the story and it has brought about a great deal of introspection. It has caused me to evaluate what is most important in my life, to think about how I might fare in a life threatening tragedy, and to consider to what extremes I might go to survive.

I appreciated the care that was taken by the author in describing some of the more unpleasant realities of the story. He didn't ignore them, but presented them in such a way that it More...

0 comments like

Dec 28, 2010

Vanessa rated it:

I remember reading a Readers Digest condensed version of this back in my childhood (which probably helped form my interest in plane crashes and disasters!) but only read the full version quite recently. It's an incredible read, and not just because of the experience and resilience and determination of these young men. The author covers the more sensational (and better known) details of the boys' survival in a calm, factual manner; no tabloid sensationalising here. What really struck me, though, More...

0 comments like

May 20, 2011

Melanie rated it:

The story is definitely one to read. I often get annoyed with the drive-by media coverages of current events; I always want to know the whole story, including what lead up to certain decisions and what happens after they were rescued. The media doesn't usually follow stories in such detail. This book gives me all of that. I would change a few things about the way it is actually written, and add some things to keep straight who is who and what happened to them, but otherwise, it's a good read.
More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2009

Dani rated it:

this was a riveting book and i am almost surprised how thoroughly i read it because a lot of it was repetitive (repeated rescue attempts, repeated expeditions by the survivors, repeated descriptions of how they survived each day - very detailed in the realm of what they ate, how they ate it, etc.) but the story-telling must have kept it fresh b/c i didn't find myself skimming at all, which is normally what i tend to do when things get repetitive. i've had this on my bookshelf for years and picke More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews