1974 non-fiction book
Alive
¡Viven!
? Spanish-language edition
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Author
| Piers Paul Read
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Original title
| Alive. The Story of the Andes Survivors
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Country
| Reino Unido
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Language
| English
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Publisher
| J.B. Lippincott Company
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Publication date
| 1974
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Alive
is a 1974 book by the British writer
Piers Paul Read
documenting the events of
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
.
Story
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Alive
tells the story of an Uruguayan
rugby
team (who were alumni of
Stella Maris College
), and their friends and family who were involved in the
airplane crash
of
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
. The plane crashed into the
Andes mountains
on Friday 13 October 1972. Of the 45 people on the flight, only 16 survived 72 days of sub-zero temperatures.
The search went on for eight days, although bad weather prevented searching for two days. The survivors found little food in the crashed fuselage, and it became necessary for the survivors to eat the frozen bodies of their dead friends.
The book was published two years after the survivors were rescued. The author interviewed many of the survivors as well as the family members of the passengers. He wanted to write the story as it had happened without embellishment. The author wrote:
I was given a free hand in writing this book by both the publisher and the sixteen survivors. At times I was tempted to fictionalize certain parts of the story because this might have added to their dramatic impact but in the end I decided that the bare facts were sufficient to sustain the narrative...when I returned in October 1973 to show them the manuscript of this book, some of them were disappointed by my presentation of their story. They felt that the faith and friendship which inspired them in the cordillera do not emerge from these pages. It was never my intention to underestimate these qualities, but perhaps it would be beyond the skill of any writer to express their own appreciation of what they lived through.
[1]
Reception
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The book was a critical success. Walter Clemons in
Newsweek
declared that it "will become a classic in the literature of survival."
[2]
Keith Mano
of
The New York Times Book Review
gave the book a "rave" review, stating that "Read's style is savage: unliterary, undecorated as a prosecutor's brief." He also described the book as an important one:
Cowardice, selfishness, whatever: their essential heroism can weather Read's objectivity. He has made them human. 'Alive' is thunderous entertainment: I know the events by rote, nonetheless I found it electric. And important. 'Alive' should be read by sociologists, educators, the Joint Chief of Staff. By anyone, in fact, whose business it is to prepare men for adversity.
[3]
Michel Roger
concurs, stating that: "Read has risen above the sensational and managed a book of real and lasting value."
[4]
Editions
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The first edition was released in 1974. A paperback which referenced the film
Alive: The Miracle of the Andes
, was released in 1993. A new softcover edition, with a revised introduction and additional interviews with Piers Paul Read, Coche Inciarte, and Alvaro Mangino, was released by
HarperCollins
in 2005. This edition also has a new subtitle:
Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds: The Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes
. The book was also re-released, simply titled
Alive
, in October 2012.
Films
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Music
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The book inspired the song "The Plot Sickens" on the album
Every Trick in the Book
by the American
metalcore
band
Ice Nine Kills
.
References
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]
- ^
Read, Piers Paul (1974),
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
, Lippincott, p. 10
- ^
Clemons, Walter. "Alive"
Newsweek
(22 April 1974), p.104.
- ^
Mano, D. Keith. "Alive".
The New York Times
Book Review (April 7, 1974), p.2.
- ^
Rogers, Michael... "Alive."
Rolling Stone
. (23 May 1967), p.90.
External links
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