This was much better than I expected. I've always been drawn to survival memoirs and I'd read Alive when it came out in 1974. So when a friend told me about this book I started it, but with somewhat low expectations. After all, a memoir with a melodramatic title (uh-oh, feel-good motivational tripe), written over forty years after the event, with a co-author who probably did most of the writing . . . didn't bode well. Well, this is proof positive that you CAN'T tell a book by its cover. Roberto Canessa is one of the two men who hiked for ten days out of the mountains when they realized no rescue was coming (while his father was among the relatives flying above the mountain those days trying unsuccessfully to find their sons). The description of his realization that they'd made it and would survive is one of the most moving accounts of such a moment I've read. And not melodramatic -- very straight and powerful writing.

Some reviewers were disappointed with Part Two, admittedly anticlimactic after Part One. We learn of Canessa's astounding career as a pediatric cardiologist, offering hope and survival to families facing devastating loss. We learn what an extraordinary man Canessa is -- much more than the determined headstrong young rugby player who insisted on surviving. He insists on others surviving -- with a deep compassion and gentleness we didn't meet in Part One. Don't miss Part Two.