couldn’t finish listening to, returned title...

an utterly unfortunate choice of reader for a book describing a catastrophic event as profound as those events described i find it utterly incomprehensible as to why the producers of this book chose a plummy london geezer (think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [a celebrity chef {who i LOVE by the way} talking about food etc but wouldn’t be my first choice for a book of this kind]) to narrate this title

giving an completely incongruous ‘children’s storybook’ reading of a subject that is anything but

a book with Spanish and Latin American peoples and place names read by someone who so obviously and painfully struggles with both

tone and intonation of voice being critically important and highlighting the the importance of casting for book readings conveying profound and difficult

the message of the book with empathy, understanding and deep (any) insight as to the pain and struggle of those being described

i have no doubt that this title is an important one, so much so that i cannot do it the disservice of listening to this version

i will simply have to look and wait for and until another more sensitively approached version is released.

i can’t read this book so i am grateful to all involved in its making

and i have never stopped listening to a book before, however much i didn’t enjoy the narration, this is an unhappy first and i do so out of respect for the subject and the pain and struggle of those being described.

please ignore the star ratings, they are meaningless for this review

i simply don’t feel able to give any

this review is 100% regarding performance, at this point, i am saying nothing about any other aspect, how can i I wasn’t able to finish

6 people found this helpful

Incredible story

This is a great book! I found myself listening to it at 2am in the morning, unable to switch off. I was born way after the event so I only knew snippets of what had happened, so it was a shame that the preface gives the ending away. Other than that, a really enjoyable read. Well worth the credit.

3 people found this helpful

Enjoyed the story but...

I've already read the book and was interested to listen to the audio version.

Unfortunately I felt the choice of reader was poor - although clear, the reading was far too lighthearted and jovial sounding

2 people found this helpful

Astonishing story

Grim retelling of the Adean air crash in the '70s. Interesting to hear the actions of the parents and the useless military.
The question is... Would you?

2 people found this helpful

One of the best books I've ever read

Incredible story, I couldn't stop listening. The narrator was actually very good on the whole, but, as others have pointed out, his pronunciation of Spanish names and places was awful. Still, it doesn't really detract from the experience and he makes up for it with otherwise good narration.

2 people found this helpful

Mental story..

The story here is absolutely crazy.. would recommend for that alone.
A tragic accident in the first place but then pile on top of that everything else they had to endure.

1 person found this helpful

Why tell us how it ends at the beginning?

Very interesting story and clear narration however, it was a shame they told you how it ended at the start of the book. I’m not sure why they did that as you already knew how many survived and how they were rescued which did ruin the anticipation aspect of the story a bit.

1 person found this helpful

Harrowing but brilliant

Fantastically detailed and well paced book. Even knowing the outcome didn’t ruin the journey on how they got there. Well Worth a read!!

very bleak, but astonishing

the story here is incredibly powerful. I'm not religious, but it's clear how much faith enabled the survivors from the crash to endure their awful ordeal.

Excellent (including the narration!)

I genuinely cannot understand why some reviewers have had such a negative reaction to the narrator of this audiobook - he seems to me to have got it just right - lively and with some emotion, but at the same time not over-doing the emotion i.e. reading with some feeling and energy but at the same time allowing the reader space for their own subjective reaction to the content. There is nothing worse than an over-interpretive narrator whose emotional reaction and consequent expression clashes with one’s own. And yes, it might be a bit irksome that his Spanish pronunciation isn’t spot on (especially if you have had a few lessons yourself in order to converse with the locals about their culture…) but, again, I really cannot understand why that would be quite as irritating as it apparently was to some…. So, overall, having read (listened to) several books on this Andes plane crash, I would say this one is the most comprehensive in terms of detail and background information. And very well narrated too.