First published 2015
On November 17, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga departed Mexico's coast for what should have been a routine two-day fishing expedition. A violent storm destroyed his engine and swept his small boat into the open Pacific. For the next fourteen months, Alvarenga battled constant shark attacks while drifting 9,000 miles across the ocean. He caught fish barehanded, crafted nets from plastic bottles, and fashioned hooks from his motor parts. He sewed clothing using fish bones as needles. Multiple times he contemplated ending his life, once even offering himself to circling sharks. Through sheer determination and improvised survival techniques, he maintained both physical strength and mental clarity until the Pacific finally delivered him to a remote Marshall Islands atoll on January 29, 2014. Journalist Jonathan Franklin reconstructed this extraordinary ordeal through extensive interviews with Alvarenga himself, plus rescue officials, medical personnel, and the island couple who discovered him.
Genres: biography, survival, adventure, memoir
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: against-all-odds, man-vs-nature, survival
Setting: Mexico, Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean
Period: 2012-2014
274 pages · Paperback · Macmillan
Content warnings: violence