
438 Days
An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
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Narrated by:
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George Newbern
About this listen
438 Days is the miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history - as told to journalist Jonathan Franklin in dozens of exclusive interviews.
On November 17, 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 blasted him west. When he washed ashore on January 29, 2014, he had arrived in the Marshall Islands, 9,000 miles away - equivalent to traveling from New York to Moscow round trip.
For 14 months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks. He learned to catch fish with his bare hands. He built a fish net from a pair of empty plastic bottles. Taking apart the outboard motor, he fashioned a huge fishhook. Using fish vertebrae as needles, he stitched together his own clothes.
He considered suicide on multiple occasions - including offering himself up to a pack of sharks. But Alvarenga never failed to invent an alternative reality. He imagined a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough for the Pacific Ocean to toss him up on a remote, palm-studded island, where he was saved by a local couple living alone in their own Pacific Island paradise.
Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and interviews with his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life, and the remote islanders who nursed him back to health, this is an epic tale of survival, an all-true version of the fictional Life of Pi. 438 Days is a study of the resilience, will, ingenuity, and determination required for one man to survive 14 months lost at sea.
©2015 Jonathan Franklin (P)2015 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Narrator George Newbern does an excellent job delivering the story of Alvarenga's struggle... Newbern's consistent pace and varied tone keep the compelling story going, communicating the harrowing aspects of the journey as well as Alvarenga's inspirational will to survive his extended ordeal at sea." (AudioFile)
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Whether we’re focused on the apocalypse or just an ill-timed breakdown on the side of a particularly remote road, there’s something about imagining survival scenarios that can be addictive. On some level, we all wonder if we would have what it takes to pit ourselves against the worst the world can possibly offer and make it out alive. That’s why it’s no surprise that survival literature is so popular, and that the stories in the genre are so diverse.
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Cabin Fever
- The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic
- By: Michael Smith, Jonathan Franklin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In early 2020, the world was on edge. An ominous virus was spreading on different continents, and no one knew what the coming weeks would bring. Far from the hot spots, the cruise ship Zaandam, owned by Holland America, was preparing to sail from Buenos Aires, Argentina, loaded with 1,200 passengers—Americans, Europeans and South Americans, plus 600 crew. Within days, people aboard begin to fall sick. With only two doctors aboard and few medical supplies to test for or treat COVID-19, and with dwindling food and water, the ship wanders the oceans on an unthinkable journey.
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really really great story telling
- By Amazon Buyer on 06-28-22
By: Michael Smith, and others
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A Wild Idea
- By: Jonathan Franklin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The incredible true story of the entrepreneur turned conservationist - the founder of the iconic company The North Face who used his fortune to protect more than 25 million acres of land from development and exploitation and “foster peace between people and wild nature”.
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How could I have not known.
- By Nancy B. Bryant on 06-01-23
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Salvador
- By: Jonathan Franklin
- Narrated by: Pau Ferrer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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El sábado 17 de noviembre de 2012 Salvador Alvarenga y su compañero Ezequiel Córdoba se hicieron a la mar para ir a pescar tiburones en su pequeña embarcación. Había aviso de tormenta pero Alvarenga era un experto pescador que no se amedrentaba por nada. Cuando les alcanzó el temporal se encontraban lejos de la costa y un fallo del motor acabó imposibilitando su regreso.
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Buena historia !!
- By Sergio on 02-24-25
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Into the Storm
- Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival
- By: Tristram Korten
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.
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Just average
- By Rickmeister on 03-13-20
By: Tristram Korten
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Lost in the Wild
- Danger and Survival in the North Woods
- By: Cary J. Griffith
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage - and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened from a fall with a lump on his head and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused. Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest's solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day.
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Great book, but should be organized differently
- By Don Lance on 09-20-19
By: Cary J. Griffith
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Skeletons on the Zahara
- A True Story of Survival
- By: Dean King
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.
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Haunting
- By thawstone on 06-05-16
By: Dean King
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When I Fell from the Sky
- The True Story of One Woman's Miraculous Survival
- By: Juliane Diller Koepcke, Ross Benjamin - translator
- Narrated by: Judith Georgi
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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She was 17 years old on a Christmas Eve flight 40 years ago to join her father for Christmas when the unimaginable happened. The Lockheed L-188A Electra, on the way from Lima to Pucallpa, flew directly into a thunderstorm. A strike of lightning left the plane incinerated and Juliane Diller (Koepcke) still strapped to her plane seat falling through the night air two miles above the Earth. Her survival is unexplainable and considered a modern-day miracle. Her mother was among the 91 dead and Juliane the sole survivor.
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Incredible life lived after incredible death diverted
- By Alyssum M. Pohl on 04-15-25
By: Juliane Diller Koepcke, and others
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Lost in the Jungle
- A Harrowing True Story of Survival
- By: Yossi Ghinsberg
- Narrated by: Pat Young
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest, but what begins as a dream adventure quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare, and after weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth, the four backpackers split up into two groups. But when a terrible rafting accident separates him from his partner, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone against one of the wildest backdrops on the planet.
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Interesting story, awful narrator.
- By Adrian Bardue on 02-17-16
By: Yossi Ghinsberg
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The Color of Everything
- A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
- By: Cory Richards
- Narrated by: Cory Richards
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Color of Everything is a thrilling tale of risk and adventure, written by a man who has done it all: he’s stood at the top of the world, climbed imposing mountain faces alone in the dark and become the only American to summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter. But it is also the story of a tumultuous life--a stirring, lyrical memoir that captures the profound musings of a brilliant and unquiet mind grappling with the meaning of success, the cost of fame, addiction, and whether it is possible to outrun your demons.
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Honesty
- By Shayne durfee on 07-18-24
By: Cory Richards
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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33 Men
- Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners
- By: Jonathan Franklin
- Narrated by: Armando Valdez Kennedy
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Having had unparalleled access to the Chilean mine disaster, award-winning journalist Jonathan Franklin takes readers to the heart of a remarkable story of human endurance, survival, and historic heroism. 33 Men is the groundbreaking, authoritative account of the Chilean mine disaster, one of the longest human entrapments in history.
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Excellent
- By James on 11-23-15
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Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
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One of the Best Stories Ever Told!
- By Tiffany on 04-10-16
By: Joan Druett
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Alive
- The Story of the Andes Survivors
- By: Piers Paul Read
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the 45 original passengers and crew, only 16 made it off the mountain alive. For 10 excruciating weeks, they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, these men and women not only had to keep their faith; they had to make an impossible decision: Should they eat the flesh of their dead friends?
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Overall Great Read
- By Eric Ames on 06-02-21
By: Piers Paul Read
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Into Thin Air
- A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Philip Franklin
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of Into the Wild. Read by the author. Also, hear a Fresh Air interview with Krakauer conducted shortly after his ordeal.
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Audio version RUINED with new narrator!
- By Shannon Ellis on 02-06-16
By: Jon Krakauer
What listeners say about 438 Days
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andy
- 11-28-15
couldn't put it down
Quick moving and heck of a story! Close up look at the arc of an almost certain disaster. Great examples of how ingenuity and confidence can combine to seize victory out of near defeat.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Robin
- 11-27-19
If you ever found yourself in a very bad way...
Everything that could go wrong and right did for this amazing human being. What truly inspired me was the fact that he found himself forced out to sea with barely anything to ensure his survival, and yet he just went on to make a life of survival out of it. He accepted what happened, took stock in his new lot in life and just went with it. That my friends is how you get on with the business with living. If he had died enduring this chapter of his life; we’d all never known how he mastered the lesson of life; is just live to survive, endure and get on with the business of living. My spirit is touched for getting to know this mans humanity. Not just anyone would have done what he had to. A very high percentage of people just die in such life altering, life endangered situations. Many just don’t have this very rare type of will to survive. Its damn difficult for a long period of time for which the end to it is utterly unknown.
When faced with that, how do you know if you are one who can do it?
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2 people found this helpful
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- Cody Scott
- 01-25-17
Awesome
This is a great story of survival ranking right up there with a lot of the other survival books I've listened to in the past couple years. Definitely recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Christian ✝️
- 12-22-15
Great story of survival for a purpose
I expected an interesting story of survival. Even though everybody who starts this book knows the ending it is riveting and you're pulling for him to survive as well as realize he does have a purpose.
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1 person found this helpful
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- pamakarma
- 12-10-16
Great book that's hard to put down
Only quibble is that he could have identified the birds better and added a sequel to the 2016 edition to tell if Salvador really changed his life around like he promised to do while he was adrift
For this genre it is very well written imp and certainly the castaway fisherman displayed superhuman mental and physical strength!
Glad I bought it😊
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1 person found this helpful
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- Snickidoodle
- 05-05-19
Incredible story of survival
I recently watched Castaway again, and went looking for true stories of survival. This book did not disappoint. I was glued to it, and listened to it all within just a few days. I am terrified of water, crocodiles, sharks, etc., so it just fascinated me how someone could not only live their life so close to all of these things, but survive alone for so long, surrounded by water and sharks. I’m a vegetarian, so his diet kind of got to me, but overall an amazing story.
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- themabrys
- 03-27-18
Inspirational
An amazing and compelling story of survival and the will to live. Give this a listen and you’ll realize you have no problems.
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- Marie
- 12-05-17
Loved it!!
Great story to listen to. I was enthralled from the start. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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- B.
- 12-02-17
Extraordinary!
Wow! This is an amazing story and a great lesson in life and survival. I particularly enjoyed the end of the book . This man is a gift to those who read his trial.
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- Silvia Hebner
- 03-31-18
Life inspiring...
I was pleasantly surprised to learn so much from a fisherman! He fought and never gave up!
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