Survival Stories: Nonfiction

True stories of endurance, bravery, and hope.

Updated June 4, 2023
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Adrift
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
Read, Piers Paul
Paper Book
LOST 1972. A plane has crashed in the Andes mountains. The passengers are hopelessly lost in one of the most isolated places on earth. ABANDONED Almost three months later, two of the survivors, emaciated and frozen, reach the authorities and lead a rescue team to the...
Alone : orphaned on the ocean
Logan, Richard
Ebook
Terry Jo Duperrault was 11 when her family was murdered at sea aboard a chartered sailboat off the coast of Florida. She jumped overboard just in time to escape. Surviving four days on a cork float in the middle of the ocean, Terry Jo's rescue pictures graced LIFE Magazine soon after she was...
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
Paper Book
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 Louis Zamperini. His...
In the wake of madness : the murderous voyage of the whaleship Sharon
Druett, Joan.
Paper Book
On May 25, 1841, the whaleship Sharon of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, set out for the whaling grounds of the northwestern Pacific under the command of Captain Howes Norris. A year later, while most of the crew was out on the hunt, Norris remained at the helm with four crew members-three of them natives...
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.
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...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.