Nando Parrado

Told by one of the survivors, this is the story of the plane crash that stranded a rugby team and their families and supporters on a glacier in the high Andes in the 1970s. While most of the book is about what happened there and how any of them managed to live, as well as Roberto and Nando's heroic trek over the mountain to find help, the last part of the book shares what happened to most of the other survivors in the 30 years before this book was written. Nando became a racecar driver, then met his wife and retired to run his family business and raise a family. It was neat that the Prologue and Epilogue were read by Nando himself. The last few tracks contain an interview with him also.… (more)

Fascinating story about a plane crash in the Andes where the survivors lived for weeks in the freezing cold with minimal supplies and no easy way out of the dangerously high mountains. The only negative about this book is that the initial chapter provides too much backstory and the last chapter provides too much after story. A good editor would have stuck tight to the plane crash and focused solely on that. So, not the most well written book I've read, but it gives serious insight into what man can and will do to survive.… (more)

Both the new intro (2022) and the ending give author Nando Parrado's takeaway lesson from his Andes experience, a lesson (unfortunately) he promotes in his speaking engagements, and it's NOT INSPIRATIONAL at all -- specifically, it's disbelief in God, but belief in love. What a tragic deception with eternal implications! Even so, the book is well-written, adds to the famous account Alive, and gives Christians much to ponder -- but I would not recommend gifting this book to people who are not solid in their faith, those who could be deceived by this damning philosophy.… (more)