Still Alive and Well: New York Times Bestseller by Piers Paul Read

k3n: At an early age, a teacher presented the movie to us in the 90s. I didn't know there was a book and immediately after watching the society of the snow I had to read the book. I couldn't put it down. Thank you for sharing your story with the world.

United States on Jan 25, 2024

Shel Holmes: This book was scary. Could I be able to do this? I don’t know honestly. How hungry would I have to get. And not enough water. And sleeping in a stinky plane all crammed in in the snow. I just don’t think I could do it. Very brave people. God bless them all.

United States on Jan 12, 2024

Ahnya: This is an incredible read. This story has everything, detailed moments that inform the reader of each boy’s character and motivations, the highs and lows of survival in an unpredictable unsurvivable environment, and yes, every gruesome detail of their diet. It’s absolutely riveting, but not for the faint of heart. The works best moments come in the story of the survivors relationships with one another. You come away with this incredible understanding that sometimes mediocre people become truly great from the community that surrounds them and uplifts them.

United States on Jan 11, 2024

jhbandcats: This is the second time I’ve read this and I’m still in awe of the story and the fact it was written so cogently within a year of the plane crash. It has a rather harsh, abrupt feel to it. The author describes some of the young men as, variously, violent, immature, and arrogant, and he goes into detail about the strife and bitter arguments amongst the survivors. In agonizing pain, increasingly weak from starvation, tempers frayed and insults flew.

At the same time, what the survivors remember is their camaraderie and love, their team spirit. In later interviews, the disagreements have been forgotten but at the time, they were all-encompassing. It’s difficult to reconcile the two outlooks. It almost seems like this author goes out of his way to be as harsh and cruel as possible. In other books, the authors bend over backwards to be more understanding and philosophical about the situation.

In any case, this is an amazing tale of extraordinary survival. It’s a riveting story. I found myself thinking of it whenever I wasn’t actively reading. It may not be the most well-written nonfiction book I’ve read but it’s certainly one of the more compelling.

United States on Jan 05, 2024

Gary Barbero: Well r
Written, keeps the reader involved, perhaps a little too much when the truth of the survival, rests on the shoulders of those who did not survive the crash, but I am sure, would have done the same if they did. Thank you Piers Paul….

Canada on Sep 27, 2023

Amazon Kunde: Abwicklung perfekt...!

Germany on Apr 13, 2023

John Hopper: This is the gripping, dramatic, grim and thought-provoking account of a group of young Uruguayan rugby players and their family and friends stranded in the snow capped Andes after their plane crashed when the pilot misjudged his location and wrecked his aircraft one day in October 1972. A number of passengers and crew perished in the crash itself or died of their injuries shortly thereafter. Even so there were some 29 survivors at this point of the original 45 passengers and crew. The survivors had very little food to share among them while waiting to be rescued, and soon they faced the inevitability of death .....until they took the shocking but necessarily life-saving step of eating the bodies of their dead friends and fellow passengers and crew. The account of these events is very detailed and entirely matter of fact and unsensationalised. It would be easy to be appalled and disgusted by this, but without this recourse, there have been no eventual survivors at all. In the end, after the deaths of 8 in an avalanche, and a further few from a combination of injuries and malnutrition, 16 of the boys eventually made it, after two of them managed to find a way out of the barren area...

United Kingdom on Oct 17, 2022

Jaime Marcos: Very well described, fast and easy to read!
Great story and excellent way of telling it.
When you are having a hard time to get sleep, read this book and imagine the conditions in which they were sleeping, you can rapidly fall asleep.
I strongly recommend it.

Mexico on Oct 19, 2021

Roberto Mesquita Ribeiro: An extreme survival event, unique as it was, treated with courage and honesty. Source of inspiration for us all, survivors on an incomparably easier environment.

Brazil on Mar 15, 2020

Sebtown reader: I first read this book in about 1980. I remember that the story really captured me and for years. when asked about a favorite book, I would think of this one. Recently I saw on Goodreads Twitter feed that that this book was still being read and appreciated. I wondered if I would still be as moved by the book now as I had been so many years ago so I picked it up and read it again.
Yes, it was a remarkably well told survival tale. It gave me a chance to be grateful that I have not yet had to face the challenges that the survivors of the flight felt . I found admiration both for the heroism of some of the survivors in particular and for the objectivity and strong writing of the author of the book. However, I would not call this a favorite book now. For one thing, I was overwhelmed with detail. I didn't want to read the minutia of every hour of every day (or so it seemed) for the survivors and their families. The author does a fine job of highlighting the participants in the story but there were so many of them and so many details that I didn't really feel as if I got to know any of them very well. I think I have changed as a reader. Perhaps, back in the day, I was interested in...

United States on Jul 10, 2017