Survival Stories: Nonfiction

True stories of endurance, bravery, and hope.

Updated June 4, 2023
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Adrift : seventy-six days lost at sea
Callahan, Steven.
Ebook
Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting...
Alive : sixteen men, seventy-two days, and insurmountable odds-- the classic adventure of survival in the Andes
Read, Piers Paul
Paper Book
"A classic in the literature of survival." --Newsweek On October 12, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote, snow-peaked Andes Mountains. Ten weeks later, only 16 of the 45 passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks...
Deep down dark : the untold stories of 33 men buried in a Chilean mine, and the miracle that set them free
Tobar, Héctor
Paper Book
Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of...
Devil at my heels : a heroic Olympian's astonishing story of survival as a Japanese POW in World War II
Zamperini, Louis
Ebook
The bestselling autobiography of the legendary Louis Zamperini, hero of the blockbuster Unbroken. A modern classic by an American legend, Devil at My Heels is the riveting and deeply personal memoir by U.S. Olympian, World War II bombardier, and POW survivor...
In the wake of madness : the murderous voyage of the whaleship Sharon
Druett, Joan.
Paper Book
After more than a century of silence, the true story of one of history's most notorious mutinies is revealed in Joan Druett's riveting "nautical murder mystery" (USA Today). On May 25, 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year...
Lost in Shangri-la : a true story of survival, adventure, and the most incredible rescue mission of World War II
Zuckoff, Mitchell.
Paper Book
"A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew--what an utterly compelling and...
Madhouse at the end of the Earth : the Belgica's journey into the dark Antarctic night
Sancton, Julian
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The "exquisitely researched and deeply engrossing" (The New York Times) true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry--with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter ...
Miracle in the Andes : 72 days on the mountain and my long trek home
Parrado, Nando
Paper Book
The harrowing personal story of the hero of the international bestseller Alive gives a day-by-day account of what happened during the 1972 Andes plane crash and its aftermath and shows how Parrado coped with the stresses; how he kept from giving up; and where he found strength to climb out alive.
Miracles on the water : the heroic survivors of a World War II U-boat attack
Nagorski, Tom
Paper Book
An unforgettable story of children in wartime, of heroism at sea, and--above all--of courage and the power of the human spirit. On September 17, 1940, at a little after ten at night, a German submarine torpedoed the passenger liner S.S. City of Benares in the North...
Wild by nature : from Siberia to Australia, three years alone in the wilderness on foot
Marquis, Sarah
Paper Book
One woman 10,000 miles on foot 6 countries 8 pairs of hiking boots 3,000 cups of tea 1,000 days and nights "The only way to survive three years of walking was to embrace the moment of now."--fromWild by Nature Not since Cheryl Strayed...

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