Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

by Piers Paul Read

We are glad, what is more, that there were forty-five of them, because this helped at least sixteen to return.

no one could have survived in such a place and under such conditions without resort to courageous decisions.

At times I was tempted to fictionalize certain parts of the story because this might have added to their dramatic impact, but in the end I decided that the bare facts were sufficient to sustain the narrative. With the exception of the rendering of some speech in dialogue form, nothing in this book departs from the truth as it was told to me by those involved.