Alive : The Story of the Andes Survivors

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Summary: The best book I ever read!
Review: I believe that I'm not the only person who read this book, but I wanna say to all the people who didn't read it yet: "you have to read it!" It isn't a normal book, it's a true happend story that's beautifull written down. I have seen the movie 'Alive' several times, but when you read the book, you will notice that the book is told with much more details. I'm only 15, but the story really surprised me... I found the book dramatic but i really like it how the boys of the rugbyteam support eachother...if you read the book, you will understand what's friendship all about. It isn't just be friends and support eachother... a real friend also gives his life for his friends...in this book, almost every guy says that when he is dead, the other may eat his body, so they will not die. I hope that the persons who read the story or who wants to ask something about it...they may always contact me at [e-mail] I love reading, but i never read a book like this one! Please do yourself a favor and read it... Thanks !

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Story of Survival
Review: Alive is the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed into the Andes mountains, where they were forced to survive for 71 days. Alive is an excellantly written account of their ordeal in the Andes, and their survival through ingenious ideas and the eating of their dead friends' human flesh. Meanwhile, Alive also covers the search party attempts made by the members of the families of the boys trapped in the Andes. This book also gives a good account of most of the boys personalities and their will to survive. The most compelling thing about this book is that they never gave up there belief in that they could survive through their belief in god. In the end two members of the group climb a mountain and hike for days to reach civilization and save the remaining 14 still living in the busted plane. This book is truly a great account of the determination for humans to survive at all costs. I would reccommend this book to anyone who would like to read a true and emotionally gripping story. Alive is one of the best things I've read in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: i gave "Alive" five stars because it was a great story about a group of rugby players that are in a plane crash in the andes mountains where they are faced with very controversial decisions which challenged them mentally and spiritually.

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Summary: A Fight for Survival
Review: Alive was a novel based on the true story of the Andes Survivors. There were thirty-two people who survived the plane crash and spent seventy gruesome days in the Andes. Their only source of food was wine and a small amount of candy. The only shelter that the thirty-two survivors had was the fuselage from the plane, which obviously didn't live up to the standards of the cold, harsh weather they had to endure. Being lost and cold, the number of survivors dropped slowly but drastically. They started off with thirty-two survivors and by the end of the book there was only sixteen survivors. As the number of survivors decreased slowly, the bond between the remaining was truly evident. For the matter of survival, the people who were struggling to survive had to resort to cannibalism and eat the "meat" of the people who died. In the book the reader can also see the never-ending struggle to find the men by their families and friends. The reader gets a sense of what it is like to try and survive in the Andes, but they also see what it is like for the families. Even though what these men went through may sicken you, it was the courage of these men that shone through. This book is absolutely a must-read for anyone.

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Summary: Talk about taking your breath away...
Review: After seeing the movie of the same name, I had to go out and buy the book. It took me forever to finally find it, and when I did, I didn't regret it. My own dog-eared copy -- only a few weeks old, by the way -- goes with me everywhere now. The story of the 1972 plane crash in which members, friends, and family of a Uruguayan rugby team were forced to face the prospect of eating the flesh of the dead isn't the gratuitously graphic tale it certainly has the potential to be. Piers Paul Read portrays the victims and the survivors not as cannibals, but as people who have to escape torturous circumstancesin the only way possible. In reading this book, I found myself realizing that, in the same way as I had when I watched the movie, I couldn't help but think what I would have done in their situation. It took reading this book to understand that in refusing to eat human flesh and going along with a taboo like that, I would be condemning myself in such a situation, and I care to! ! o much about my family and friends to do something like that. The strength and fortitude of the survivors -- in spending 70 days in the Andes mountains, with hardly any food or shelter -- is something to be admired and respected.

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Summary: Powerful Story of Survival
Review: "Alive" is a fascinating tale of survival that has acquired a notoriety because of something that happened during that period of survival. That notoriety is a shame because it detracts from the greater story of how so many individuals could have made through what had happened to them. For those totally uninitiated to the story, a plane load of Uruguayan rugby players (and family members) goes down in the mountains of the Andes en route to their game in Chile. All efforts to locate the downed plane were unsuccessful and the search eventually is called off. However, many of the passengers have survived and are essentially, in good health. They gather together their resources which were limited because the flight was relatively short and thus the on-board supplies were short as well. Things happen as the survivors await the rescue that doesn't come and the most infamous thing that happens is that many of the survivors take to eating flesh of their departed. Ultimately, in what is the most spectacular event of the book, a couple of men decide to reach civiliztion on their own (scenes from "Lost Horizon" come to mind) and they actually succeed. This leads to the resue of the others as the whole world discovers their amazing survival. They also discover one of the not-so-secret means of their survival; their canabalism. A variety of sleazy accounts in print and film sought to depict that shocking aspect of an otherwise amazing survival story. Fortunately "Alive" (both the book and, later, the film) rise above that to bring the real story. This account is one you won't be able to put down until you've turned the last page.

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Summary: Very real book.
Review: This is the story of a rugby team whos plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. This book shows how most of the team survived and even got rescued. A couple of the hardships that are faced are an avalanche and running out of food, which makes them resort to cannibalism.

The story was a good read, but the genre is not my type. This book did not click with me. Read this book if you want a real and graphic story because that is what it is.

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Summary: They were Survivors: Will you survive?
Review: On October 12th, 1972, a small plane carring 45 rugby players and their families crashed in the Andes, after their pilot made a wrong tuirn in the Andes.

In the begining there where 45, and their story has gone down in history as one of the most unique and terrifying stories ever told. In the mountaisn slowly, accident, lack of food, avalanches and other un-foreseen causes destroy the men. But, their faith in God and their faith in their remaining families to find them and save them remains.

Horrifying problems arise, such as what to do for food. the common idea is to eat the dead, and the survivors remain alive off their loving and caring friends who have already passed. Cannibalism.

Soon, the men releize that no one is coming for them and they are going to have to get out by themself. And they do. In the middle of nowwhere, 2 of the survivors stuggle to civlization and save them all.

This book tells the truth of their survival and portrays the truth of what these men had to endure to stay alive. A story of truth, endurance, honesty, faith and wonderous and undying belief in surviving against the odds, 16 men survive for more than 2 months in the Andes, while the world around them slowly for gets them.

My favoriate part is when, the father of a rugby player whom has never stopped trying to search for his son, is reading the list of the survivors. He only knows that there are 16 survivors and he doesn't know if his son is one of they remaining, it is his job to read the list on-air to the family members listening to the radio to tell them of the survivors. He has been deticated to finding his son and never gave up, even when the Government refused to fund his searches anymore. He found help from strangers who had heard about the plane crash and had planes of their own, and were willing to help.

" "Fernando Parrado," he said, "Fernando Parrado." he pulled the paper a little further. "Jose Luis Inciarte...Jose Luis Inciarte," Then a little further: "Danial Fernandez ...Danial Fernandez." Then a little further: "Carlos Paez...Carlos Paez." Whereupon tears choked his voice, and for a moment he could read no more."

-Alive, Piers Paul Read

The book is an amazing story of endurance and anyone and everyone should read this story of real survivors.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Story
Review: I read this book while I was going through chemotherapy five years ago. It may sound corny, but this book really helped me to get through the chemo. I would think, "at least I get to sleep in my own bed." It is unbelievable what these young men went through. Everyone focuses on the cannibalism part of the story, but it is really about so much more than that. It is an incredible story of survival, and it left me wondering if I could have survived through what they did.

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Summary: A very intense read
Review: Alive is a story about a team of rugby players who crash land there plane in the andes mountians. this book is very graphic and is very intense story I would recomend the book to college freshman or higher grade level because of the graphic nature. I liked this book for a required lit. book. I would not have finished it if it had not been required