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  • 438 Days

  • An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
  • By: Jonathan Franklin
  • Narrated by: George Newbern
  • Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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438 Days

By: Jonathan Franklin
Narrated by: George Newbern
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Summary

The incredible true survival story of one man's record-breaking fourteen months lost at sea.

On 17th November, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico for a two-day fishing trip. A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged his boat out to sea. The storm picked up and carried him West, deeper into the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Alvarenga would not touch solid ground again for fourteen months. When he was washed ashore on January 30th, 2014, he had drifted over 9,000 miles.

Three dozen cruise ships and container vessels passed nearby. Not one stopped for the stranded fisherman. He considered suicide on multiple occasions – including offering himself up to a pack of circling sharks. But Alvarenga developed a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough for the Pacific Ocean to spit him up onto a remote palm-studded island. Crawling ashore, he was saved by a local couple living in their own private castaway paradise.

Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to normality, 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin is an epic tale of survival and one man's incredible story of beating the ultimate odds.

©2015 Jonathan Franklin (P)2022 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about 438 Days

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A great story spoiled a bit by lacklustre reading

The underlying story is extraordinary, but the writing of it is just ok, and the reading of it I thought was poor. Mispronounced words, emotionless, you had no sense of investment by the reader in the drama of the tale. Still worth a listen for the story itself though.

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Interesting insight into the human ability to survive

A really interesting book, well told and frankly shocking at times. It’s a really in-depth tale of human survival.

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  • C. P. Chan
  • 25-01-23

Inspiring

The fact that he survived against all odds when he shouldn’t have, in a boat with no shelter, sail or cabin. Not much tools or fishing line and still managed to hit the Ebon atoll in the middle of the sea, makes your life problems seems so small in comparison. He never gave up the will to live and he survived