BOOK REVIEW
348 Days:
An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
By Jonathan Franklin
From the Publisher, Atria Books:
“The best survival book in a decade” (Outside magazine), 438 Days is the true story of the fisherman who survived fourteen months in a small boat drifting seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean.
On November 17, 2012, a pair of fishermen left the coast of Mexico for a weekend fishing trip in the open Pacific. That night, a violent storm ambushed them as they were fishing eighty miles offshore. As gale force winds and ten-foot waves pummeled their small, open boat from all sides and nearly capsized them, captain Salvador Alvarenga and his crewmate cut away a two-mile-long fishing line and began a desperate dash through crashing waves as they sought the safety of port.
Fourteen months later, on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga, now a hairy, wild-bearded and half-mad castaway, washed ashore on a nearly deserted island on the far side of the Pacific. He could barely speak and was unable to walk. He claimed to have drifted from Mexico, a journey of some seven thousand miles.
438 Days is the first-ever account of one of the most amazing survival stories in modern times. Based on dozens of hours of exclusive interviews with Alvarenga, his colleagues, search-and-rescue officials, the remote islanders who found him, and the medical team that saved his life, 438 Days is an unforgettable study of the resilience, will, ingenuity and determination required for one man to survive more than a year lost and adrift at sea.
Why we loved it:
Four hundred and thirty-eight days. It’s hard to even imagine that amount of time—even harder to imagine being lost at sea for the duration. 438 Days grips you from the very beginning, when Salvador Alvarenga fled El Salvador for his life and started anew in Costa Azul, Mexico, working as a fisherman. Little did he know, his life would be in jeopardy again—and this time with no help, shelter, or life for miles. Surviving in a 25-foot fiberglass fishing boat adrift at sea, Alvarenga’s story is one of grit, heartache, and triumph. We highly recommend it!
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