438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

Jonathan Franklin

Nov 2015 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Declared “the best survival book in a decade” by Outside Magazine, 438 Days is the true story of the man who survived fourteen months in a small boat drifting seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean.

On November 17, 2012, two men 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.

A “gripping saga,” (Daily Mail), 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 not only “an intense, immensely absorbing read” (Booklist) but 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.

Ratings and reviews

read it twice. i like how the author doesnt make him out as a hero and also doesn't condem for doing a thing so foolish as to go out to sea a second time in a visable awful storm. I am amazed at the toll of isolation has on our phyche and that we have to adapt into fantasia or self hypnosis to deal with ourselves. everyone needs a Wilson.......... facinating getting caught in the doldrums. my mother use to say to us as kids. get out of the doldrums will ya......never knew the meaning til i read this.

A great survival story and hard to put down , amazing what he went through and lived..

A beautiful telling of a brave lost fisherman's survival at sea for 14 months!

About the author

Jonathan Franklin regularly reports for The Guardian, VICE, and Esquire. He also works with the team at Retro Report producing documentaries broadcast by The New York Times. Based in Santiago, Chile, and Manhattan, Franklin reports on Latin America. Franklin’s previous book 33 Men, the exclusive account of Chilean miners trapped nearly a kilometer underground, became a national bestseller in the US and UK and was translated into nineteen languages. He can be contacted @FranklinBlog and JonathanFranklin.com.