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.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: The riveting account of a harrowing month spent stranded at sea--an incredible story of one man's struggle and bravery. Steven Callahan shares his dramatic tale of survival at sea in this undeniable seafaring classic. His engrossing firsthand...
Alive : sixteen men, seventy-two days, and insurmountable odds-- the classic adventure of survival in the Andes
Read, Piers Paul
#1 New York Times Bestseller "No one will come away unmoved by the book, and no one will be able to put it down.... There is no way of reading Alive without a heightened sense of one's own life and its value." -- New Republic Sixteen Men, Seventy-Two Days, and...
Alone : orphaned on the ocean
Logan, Richard D.
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
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
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.
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...
Into a raging sea : my life and the Pendleton rescue
Webber, Bernard C.
Most people familiar with the name Bernie Webber associate him with the miraculous rescue of 32 men off of the stern of the Pendleton, made famous in the book and movie The Finest Hours. Rescuing 32 sailors from a sinking ship caught in a ferocious winter storm is a dramatic tale, but what made this...
Lost in Shangri-la : a true story of survival, adventure, and the most incredible rescue mission of World War II
Zuckoff, Mitchell.
"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
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
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
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...
Out of the silence : after the crash
Strauch Urioste, Eduardo
A personal story of survival, hope, and spiritual awakening in the face of unspeakable tragedy. It's the unfathomable modern legend that has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit: the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy...
Wild by nature : from Siberia to Australia, three years alone in the wilderness on foot
Marquis, Sarah
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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