Alive by Piers Paul Read

Started: 7/31/09
Finished: 8/7/09
Year: 1974
Pages: 352
Genre: Non-fiction
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Lost in the vast snowy wastes of the high Andes...all offical rescue efforts abandoned...no food...inadequate clothing for sub-zero temperatures...no mefical supplies to ease the suffering of the dying. So began a terrible ordeal for the young men and women who, on October 12, 1972, had set out from Uruguay in high spirits for a series of rugby matches in Chile. Their chartered airplane had enterd a cloudbank, lost altitude in a series of downdrafts, and crashed into a mountain peak.
"The Fairchild had carried five crewmen anf forty passengers. Some were killed instantly. But those who survived clung to life with extrsordinary tenacity and ingenuity. They formed themselves into an ordered society, distributing tasks according to individual skills and degrees of physical fitness. Leaders emerged who had never been leaders before.
"Realizing that what little chance they had to live lay in their own hands, they planned their escape. Rather than die of starvation, they made a difficult decision: they would use the bodies of their dead companions for food. They were still to endure unexpected and terrible hardships, and one unforseen tragedy almost overwhelmed them with despair. Yet they refused to be demoralize, and their determination to save themselves increased by sheer strength of will."
Opinion: I had heard about parts of this story growing up-mostly about the consumption of human flesh. An amazing story of survival in one of the most harshest territories out there in the world.