Alive: The True Story of the Andes Survivors - Piers Paul Read

I wasn't alive in 1972, so there was never a movement when I discovered that 16 survivors had been found from a plane crash 10 weeks earlier in one of the harshest territories on Earth. Instead, I've just heard scraps about the Fairchild, a chartered flight from the Uruguayan air force carrying a rugby team and a few others - 45 in total - crashing in the Andes while on their way to Chile and the survivors being forced to eat the dead in order to ...
...must have been - or how miraculous the escape of the remaining 16 was.

My expectations were a little subdued when I read that the book had won a Thomas More Medal for its contribution to Catholic literature and that some of the survivors felt that "the faith and friendship which inspired them in the cordillera do not emerge from these pages". Read's introduction also makes it clear that this is no work of fiction: he did ... more

I wasn't alive in 1972, so there was never a movement when I discovered that 16 survivors had been found from a plane crash 10 weeks earlier in one of the harshest territories on Earth. Instead, I've just heard scraps about the Fairchild, a chartered flight from the Uruguayan air force carrying a rugby team and a few others - 45 in total - crashing in the Andes while on their way to Chile and the survivors being forced to eat the dead in order to survive. I wasn't really prepared for how terrible this ordeal must have been - or how miraculous the escape of the remaining 16 was.

My expectations were a little subdued when I read that the book had won a Thomas More Medal for its contribution to Catholic literature and that some of the survivors felt that "the faith and friendship which inspired them in the cordillera do not emerge from these pages". Read's introduction also makes it clear that this is no work of fiction: he did consider 'embellishing' the story to make it more emotional, but decided that the truth was stronger than fiction. As Read says: "perhaps it would be beyond the skill of any writer to express their own appreciation of what they lived through."

So, I read Alive with mixed feelings. Was it going to be an extra-long version of a news bulletin? Would it be unemotional? Would the writing be any good? I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, the writing style and tone is perfect. It's clear and open and honest - it doesn't lapse into sentimentality, but neither does it stray from depicting the feelings and emotions of the crash victims. It sets the scene nicely, giving some background into how there came to be a rugby team and a little on the Uruguayan culture; enough to explain my questions but not enough to bore me before it got into the real story.

The plane seemed doomed from the start. It flew out on Friday 13th October 1972, which is ironic considering the passengers were mostly Catholic and the superstition is said to arise from Christ being crucified on a Friday and there being 13 people at the last supper. It was also supposed to be a 4 hour flight, so it did not contain any other food supplies than those that the passengers brought onto the plane. Then, just before the crash, the pilot transmitted their position - or so he thought. Unfortunately, he was wrong and nobody realised it until they were rescued.

What follows is a story of incredible willpower and survival. Those who survived the crash did not all survive their injuries. Then the survivors were weakened further by a starvation diet of a square of chocolate and a mouthful of drink. They were also 11,500 feet up a mountain in the middle of the Andes, in sub-zero temperatures. This account leaves out nothing - how they slept in the cramped fuselage of the plane, how they made water from snow and the details of their constipation and diarrhoea (which I felt I didn't need to know).

However, despite stating the truth about the enforced cannibalism, the account of this isn't as graphic and detailed as that of their bowel movements. It also presents all the arguments as to why they resorted to cannibalism; the main point being that if they hadn't had eaten the dead victims, the others would certainly have died.

The story is incredible. At times, I had to remind myself that I was not reading a work of fiction. Maybe, as some of the survivors felt, it didn't get across the full horror of the situation or the sheer human strength needed to survive, but it was certainly moving and portrays at least some of the emotions with potency. Knowing the full details makes it even more amazing that anyone survived, let alone 16.

Read this book. I found mine at WHSmith for just 50p, but it's worth the £5.59 that it costs on Amazon. It highlights that truth is often stranger than fiction and what humans are capable of amid total desperation. While the deaths of the 29 who didn't come back from the mountain are extremely sad, it is the story of survival that ultimately stays with you. 

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